Why Chelsea can splash out

When Chelsea’s spending total for the summer is in excess of £160 million, you can understand why some people might be asking how the club can afford all this in an era of Financial Fair Play. So far they have brought in only £6.9 million from the loan fee which saw Romelu Lukaku return to Inter Milan.

Chelsea’s last financial results showed they made a loss of £145.6 million for the year up to June 30 2021 and that their wage bill was one of the highest in the game at £333 million.

However, football finance expert Kieran Maguire isn’t worried. “I’m actually pretty relaxed about Chelsea,” he tells The Athletic. “I know they’ve made big losses in the past but they can say COVID had an impact on a couple of the seasons. They have been selling players far more than anyone else, they are the biggest generators of revenue (example of this provided by football business Twitter account Swiss Ramble, who explained that in five years up to 2020, Chelsea made £434 million from sales. The next highest were Liverpool at £276 million and Everton at £208 million).

However, Maguire adds: “Historically while Chelsea are the biggest spenders in the Premier League, they have also generated the most money from player sales over the years.   When you’re signing players, you are spreading the cost over the length of the contract. So if Chelsea spend £300 million this summer, the amortised cost per year is probably going to only be around £50-£60 million.”