PAY £2m for a 16-year-old with potential? No problem. But £5m for the Premiership’s second best marksman? Not a chance.

After three summers spending more money that world football has ever seen, Roman Abramovich has come up with another extraordinary transfer policy - unheard of sums for kids; not a penny for professionals.

Last week, Chelsea announced their third first-team transfer of the summer when Tal Ben Haim arrived on a free from Bolton. Before the Israel defender came two more Bosman signings – Reading midfielder Steve Sidwell and Bayern Munich striker Claudio Pizarro.

Across Chelsea’s Cobham training complex the club’s academy was happily bullying Premiership competitors like nothing had changed. Their first signing was relatively low key – a mere £200,000 initial payment for 16-year-old Oldham striker Danny Philliskirk, though not bad for a lad who does not play England youth football. Next came Sheffield United midfielder Jacob Mellis, his fee scheduled to rise from £1.3m if he makes the senior squad, to a possible £2m.

Currently on the teenage shopping list is England Under16 left-back Ben Gordon, for whom Leeds United want at least £1.5m. In October, Leeds agreed an initial £4m fee for Tom Taiwo and Michael Woods, when Chelsea accepted that a Premier League investigation was about to find the club guilty of illegally recruiting the two England youth internationals. Elements of their approach to Gordon will be challenged by Leeds if Chelsea do sign him without agreeing the price. The difference in resources comes down to who is asking Abramovich for money. If director of youth development Frank Arnesen wants to spend, the answer is generally yes. When Jose Mourinho puts in a request, the reply is no and has been since manager and owner went to war over new recruits last winter.

In public, Mourinho says he’s relaxed. “If you tell me we have exactly the same squad as last season without injuries, I accept,” Mourinho said recently. “I don’t need one single more player. Our squad is good. It’s impossible to have such a difficult season as we just had.” In private, he was shocked to be blocked from bidding £5m for Blackburn’s Benni McCarthy, behind only Didier Drogba in league goals last term. Mourinho is even having players forced upon him, with Alex due to be moved from his parking spot at PSV Eindhoven despite the manager’s protests that the Brazilian is neither quick nor clever enough for England. Perhaps more telling is an academy signing who won’t wear a Chelsea shirt come August.

Serbian centre-back Slobodan Rajkovic was acquired from OFK Beograd for €5.3m in 2005, having broken into his country’s under-21 side at 16. By the end of this summer, Chelsea were promised, Rajkovic would have enough full internationals caps to gain a UK work permit. In fact, he hasn’t played a single game and the under-21 coach keeps him on the bench.