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How much did Chelsea really spend?

The authoritative Swiss Ramble uses his analytical skills to answer this question: https://swissramble.substack.com/p/how-much-money-did-chelsea-really

Chelsea ended up spending an incredible £286m in the January transfer window, which takes their total spend for the 2022/23 season to £539m.

In fact, if we include transfer add-ons and the £10m loan fee to secure the services of Joao Felix for six months, the outlay in January was £327m with the expenditure for the full season being £603m. Adding the £63m committed to purchase Christopher Nkunku from RB Leipzig in the summer would give a spooky £666m.

It seems like ages ago now, but only this summer Chelsea spent another quarter of a billion pounds, including the big money buys of Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly – many of whom now find themselves on the bench.

To place Chelsea’s expenditure into perspective, it was £180m more than the rest of the Big Six combined.  Chelsea on their own spent far more than La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 put together.

Chelsea’s business model over the past few years owes a great deal to the accounting treatment for player trading, as it has essentially been to offset large operating losses with profits from player sales.

In total, the Swiss Ramble estimates that Chelsea’s signings this season have committed the club to around £1.3 bln, due to a combination of the high spend and lengthy contracts. That is an expensive gamble – unless the players deliver on the pitch.

One of the key reasons for Chelsea’s major investment is to improve their chances of qualifying for the Champions League. This will be a big ask this season, as they currently sit in 9th place in the Premier League, a full 10 points behind the top four.   Europe has been an important contributor towards Chelsea’s revenue, especially 2020 when they earned £106m by defeating Manchester City to win the Champions League.

 


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