Poor business acumen: Why Chelsea were mad to turn down £75m bid for Oscar

There’s not much £75 million can’t buy these days. Heck, you could get your hands on a Luis Suarez, James Rodriguez or one-and-a-half Raheem Sterlings for that price. If that was a thing.

But, according to Chelsea, it can’t buy you the services of Oscar – scorer of just 21 Premier League goals since moving to Stamford Bridge back in 2012.

The latest reports from the Telegraph this morning suggest that Roman Abramovich has turned down a monumental bid of £75m from Chinese Super League outfit Jiangsu Suning, who’ve already paid well over the odds for one declining Blues star this year in the shape of Ramires.

So, why the rejection? Well, quite frankly, we at Squawka have no clue.

With an estimated net worth of £5.3 billion, as believed by Forbes, the offer is just a drop in the ocean for the Russian kingpin, who has brokered ins and outs for player after player over the last 13 years – delivering four FA Cups, a Champions League and four Premier League titles – including their first since 1955 in just his second season at the helm.

Despite going through managers like Diego Costa goes through yellow cards, it’s fair to say Abramovich has acted in Chelsea’s best interests over the course of the past decade, even giving much-loved Jose Mourinho every chance to turn things around, before effectively having little choice to give him the axe with the reigning champions hovering precariously close to the dreaded relegation places. Although advocates of the Special One still believe otherwise.

But this latest piece of business, turning his omnipotent nose up at a stupendously incredulous offer for a so-so midfielder, is a huge oversight from the billionaire entrepreneur.

Oscar, on his day, can be unplayable. Check. But since joining from Internacional for a fee in the region of £25m (via BBC Sport), the 24-year-old is yet to play a real starring role for Chelsea and it’s rather apt that a player once described as the next Kaka has never truly reaped the full potential of his game. Not yet anyway.

In his debut season in English football, the Brazilian impressively ended the campaign as Chelsea’s fifth-best performer, as per Squawka’s Performance Score rankings, but he would go on to rank 11th & 10th across the next two seasons, being out-done by Eden Hazard, Willian and even Andre Schurrle on a regular basis.

Schurrle subsequently moved to Wolfsburg for less than a third of the price offered for Oscar, by the way.
Oscar was Chelsea's 10th-best performer last season.

We touched on his underwhelming goalscoring record earlier on and Oscar-defenders probably exasperated with us, uttering to their computer screens that attacking midfielders aren’t judged on hitting the net but rather on providing the imagination which in turn leads to goals.

And we’d agree with you; Mesut Ozil for instance has notched just 12 Premier League goals since joining Arsenal two-and-a-half years ago and it’s nigh-on impossible to claim he’s not been a hit in England.

And it is the Gunners playmaker – worth £42.4m back in 2013 (fee via BBC Sport) – who provides the perfect parameter to measure Oscar’s true transfer value against.

In terms of creativity – what a No.8 should be ultimately judged upon – Oscar has racked up just 17 assists in 113 Premier League outings for the Blues, just ONE more than Ozil has mustered this season alone.

A poor figure considering he played behind the division’s third-highest goalscorer and PFA Player of the Year in Costa and Eden Hazard last term.

And it’s not just that his teammates aren’t finishing off the chances he’s carving out either, with RIGHT-BACK Branislav Ivanovic responsible for just one less chance-created that Oscar last season.
67 players in the Premier League made more key passes than Oscar last season.

It gets worse: 45 Premier League players created more than the Blues man in a title-winning 2014/15 campaign, with James Morrison, Jack Colback, Adam Johnson, Mark Noble, Leroy Fer and Bobby Zamora proving more imaginative in possession.

Zamora was subsequently released by Queens Park Rangers and rejoined Brighton for £75m less than Oscar’s supposed worth, on a free transfer.

Chelsea have been much-improved under Guus Hiddink’s watchful eye and are now unbeaten in 10 games after their goalless midweek draw against Watford, but they remain in a position of financial unease which looks set to hit them hard this year.

The Deloitte Football Money League revealed last month that the Blues dropped behind Arsenal to eighth in the list of the world’s richest clubs and their revenue streams will receive a huge blow in 2016 should they miss out on Champions League football, which is looking likely with just a third of the term to settle.
Oscar has won just 39% of his duels this season.

Despite lifting the Premier League title and Capital One Cup last year, their financial stock plummeted from 2014’s figures thanks to losing broadcast funds after being knocked out of Europe at the first knockout-round phase and you can only imagine the ramifications of missing out on elite continental competition entirely.

They are predicted to drop out of the top 10 and could even be leapfrogged by Liverpool as their on-pitch demise hits their accounts hard and the sale of Oscar at £75m – £4m more than they pocketed through all of their match-day revenue last season, could have provided an instant remedy for their financial shortcomings.
Chelsea totalled £319.5m in revenue last year, with less than £75m coming through matchday streams.

Chelsea totalled £319.5m in revenue last year, with less than £75m coming through match-day streams. Via Deloitte’s Football Money League.

At just 24 years of age, the talented Brazilian certainly has more than enough time to come out of his shell and help bring more silverware to the Bridge in the coming years.

But for Chelsea, who once let Romelu Lukaku go for just £28m so Costa could come and deliver a fifth English league title, the rejection of Jiangsu’s mystifying offer quite frankly looks like terrible business.

Article from: http://www.squawka.com/news/poor-business-acumen-why-chelsea-were-mad-to-turn-down-75m-bid-for-oscar/591560

recommend you to have a look at the source/link provided as they put up pics of stats and such that doesn't show above.

So well.. Jiangsu has been all over the place it seems. No clue whether there's any truth to this. Seems weird to say the least. But what's up with Jiangsu??

It could be as simple as an ego game between billionaires, or if Oscar stated he wasn't going to China there would've been no reason to accept the bid.

Thanks for sharing the article!

Oscar's case is a difficult topic. If there was actually a bid for him this winter, I think we were right to turn it down - but only because we don't have any suitable replacement in our squad. I feel like Oscar hasn't improved a single bit ever since he joined Chelsea a couple of years ago, which is quite annoying as he started with a bang against Juventus. After some inconsistent seasons, I genuinely thought that 2015-16 would be HIS season. Unfortunately, that was/is not the case - it seems like his form on match days is determined by a coin throw. I like Oscar, but if there is a chance to get, say, Isco instead of him, I wouldn't hesitate at all.

Tbh i never seen Oscar as that good, some games he was good but i always felt like u guys could have gotten someone better than him.

@KTB y would u want Oscar to go to the Chinese league?/, if he goes somewhere, i would want him to go to another BPL or La liga club or Serie A, i dont want players to go to Chinese league because of money.

Obviously I can't read Oscar's mind, but I wouldn't be surprised if he has no intentions of moving to China.

well.. 75m is waaay to much money and Chelsea woould be stupid not to let him go. On the other side lets sit and watch how Oscar becomes greedy af.

Chinese clubs making offers no one can refuse. If China wants it, they'll probably get it.

75 million you said ?

SOLD !! TAKE HIM NOW BEFORE HE LEAVES ON HIS OWN !!

lol, well I don't think there's any truth to this rumor.. but, the fact that the rumor is there goes to show that China has become a power source in modern football

I dont care just sell him if they are giving us 75 . No other club will offer that much .. perhaps PSG but that is big IF

What, but guys, Oscar is still young, he has the potential to become a much bigger player and despite some inconsistency, he is solid most of the time. There also the fact he's one of my favorite player at Chelsea with Willian and Courtois. :P

@emo Is he? Feels like Oscar is not usually the favorite player among people :) got mixed feelings of him. He's good, but doesn't seem to improve any more.. For £75million most other top midfielders would be available.. I'm thinking Griezmann etc.

@KTBFFHSWE I guess you know better than me if he improved or not over time, haven't been checking Chelsea in the past year. Well, I haven't been checking any kind of football before 2014 and 2015. :P But anyway, I kinda like him, he look like a nice guy and a good player, but as you said, for 75 million, Chelsea can most likely get a better midfielder. Like JuanMata10 said however, getting a new player to replace him in the middle of a winter window would have been tough and there is no confirmation that Oscar would have agreed to such a deal. I'm guessing thats why it wasn't considered.

In the end he went to Shanghai SIPG for 60 millions instead. Guess there were some truth to these rumors too.

@KTB Well, the reason he refused at first was that he thought he would get playing time under Conte. When he realised he didn't fit in the Italian plan and seeing how Conte suceeded, he knew it propably wouldn't get better for him. This is why I think he chosed to move in the end.

Coutinho/Dybala/James/Griezmann/ Reus/ Aubameyang.... with that benefit Roman can afford one or two key players to attract in the next transfer market. Very good deal imo. What would be the player you would replace him with ?

@tiki Coutinho propably won't come for obvious reason, Dybala will expect better for his future (Either Barca or RM), James being more of a attacking midfielder doesn't fit in Conte plan, Griezmann will propably give priority to Manchester United cause of Paul, Aubameyang is still hoping for his Real Madrid move so I guess I would go with Reus even though he would have plenty of reason of staying at BVB.

Well they won't all go to Barca/Madrid, while in Chelsea they will have a better contract and more chances to be in the starting XI quicker. That was just examples of what can you do atm with such an amount.

I would go for the 'plausible' ones; Griezmann as a dream signing /He'll leave Atletico eventually) or James (That might leave already this summer) as a good alternative, even though I don't see how he would fit in to the current system. He's still a lot better than Oscar.

Damn it , he depreciated by 15 million in one year !