In his Zurich fastness the Swiss Ramble has been diving down into his data base to produce fascinating statistics on Premier League and Championship finances. Much more on his Substack page. In any statistical analysis ‘outliers’ that break the general pattern are always interesting and here that crown goes to Chelsea. Whether all the money spent has paid off on the pitch is a moot point. The main source of cash is obviously revenue, though the difference between the Premier League and the Championship is stark. For example, in 2024/25 the £6.9 bln revenue in the top flight was more than seven times as much as the Championship’s £929m. One driver of investment in Premier League clubs is the very impressive revenue growth, especially compared to leagues in other countries. This has shot up by nearly a third (£7.1 bn) in the last 5 years, comparing £29.8 bn to the £22.7 bn in the preceding 5-year period. The Championship has also grown in this time, but at a much...