Chelsea has started a fire sale in an attempt to reduce their bloated roster in order to comply with financial restrictions as they get ready for a new era under Mauricio Pochettino. This comes after the club went on a buying binge that shocked the football world.
Although Chelsea finished in 12th place in the Premier League in their first season under the ownership of an American consortium, the club broke the record for the most amount of money spent on transfer fees in a single year by any team in the history of the league. This was Chelsea’s worst result in the league since they joined the league in 1994.
The expenditure has now surpassed £500 million, which is equivalent to $635 million. This week’s acquisition of RB Leipzig striker Christopher Nkunku contributed to this.
However, the majority of Chelsea’s business is on player exits, as many important members of the team that won the Champions League only two years ago are planning to leave the club.
N’Golo Kante, a midfielder for France who plays for Chelsea, has already said his farewells and is joining a slew of other famous footballers who are moving to Saudi Arabia. Other Chelsea players are anticipated to follow in his footsteps.
It is possible that Chelsea’s prospects of adhering to the financial fair play (FFP) regulations of the Premier League would be significantly improved by the arrival of cash from Saudi Arabia.
It is permissible for clubs to incur a total loss of up to £105 million over a period of three years; however, there are deductions that may be made for money spent on youth football, women’s football, and infrastructure.
Even before LA Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly and private equity company Clearlake Capital assumed control of Chelsea, the club had already generated losses of £275 million during the course of the last two years of Roman Abramovich’s rule. As a result, the club seemed to be well on its way to exceeding that limit.
Some of the club’s new acquisitions from the previous season, such as Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk, were offered contracts with the club that were eight years long in order to reduce the financial effect of their transfer prices.
In order to comply with the requirements of the FFP, transfer fees are often amortized throughout the whole number of years of the contract.
In contrast, sales can be reported in full as soon as they are finished, and Chelsea are rushing to get business done before the end of football’s financial year on June 30. Sales may be registered in full as soon as they are completed.
Havertz and Kovacic are expected to relocate soon.
Many of Chelsea’s Premier League opponents are keeping a close eye on the club in the hopes of capitalizing on low-priced agreements.
Mateo Kovacic, a Croatian international player, is close to finalizing a transfer to the English champions Manchester City for an initial transfer fee of £25 million.
With just one year remaining on his contract at Stamford Bridge, England’s Mason Mount is drawing strong attention from Manchester United, who are looking to make a move for the player.
Kai Havertz, a striker for Germany, is close to signing a £65 million deal to join London rivals Arsenal, while Marc Cucurella might allegedly join Newcastle for nearly half the £60 million it cost Chelsea to get him from Brighton last year.
There is a lot of buzz about Saudi Arabia’s interest in Edouard Mendy, Kalidou Koulibaly, and Hakim Ziyech.
During the course of the last campaign, all three of them found themselves on the outside looking in, and eliminating their salary obligations while also collecting a sizeable transfer fee would be a huge relief for the club.
Allegations of a potential conflict of interest have surfaced as a consequence of business ties that exist between Clearlake and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Gary Neville, a former captain of Manchester United, has demanded that there be a ban placed on player transfers between teams in the Premier League and Saudi Arabia in order to “ensure the integrity of the game isn’t being damaged.”
However, reports indicate that the Premier League conducted an investigation into any ties between Chelsea’s ownership group and the PIF at the time of the acquisition last year and was apparently satisfied that there was no potential for conflict.
On his return to English football, Mauricio Pochettino still has the challenge of turning around Chelsea’s fortunes on the pitch. Pochettino has a lot of work ahead of him.
The higher-ups at the club are placing their faith in the Argentine to cultivate the plethora of promising young players at his disposal, much as he did during his tenure as manager of Tottenham between 2014 and 2019.
However, the struggle at the top of the Premier League is much more difficult now that Newcastle, which is funded by the Premier Investment Fund (PIF), has joined the traditional top six of City, United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Tottenham in the fight for spots in the Champions League.
And Chelsea’s careless spending over the previous year might end up helping their competitors if Havertz, Mount, and Kovacic prove to be valuable additions to the teams that they joined after leaving Chelsea.