Chelsea’s signing of Southampton’s young midfielder Romeo Lavia became their ninth new arrival of the summer, and the latest big-money acquisition following on from the likes of Moises Caicedo, Axel Disasi, Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku.
The £53 million spent on the Belgian has now taken Chelsea’s spending in their short time being owned by American Todd Boehly to just over £850m, more than double the next club Manchester United over the same period of time, who have spent £374m.
It’s been a huge outlay as Boehly aims to return Chelsea to the top of the English game after a disappointing campaign which saw them miss out on European football, sack manager Graham Potter – who they spent £21m to hire from Brighton - and welcome back interim manager Frank Lampard before Mauricio Pochettino took over this summer.
It means the Blues have an almost new-look squad to the one Boehly inherited, with long-standing players such as N’Golo Kante, Cesar Azpilicueta, Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Edouard Mendy, Mateo Kovacic and many others waving goodbye to Stamford Bridge permanently.
Their new-look, youthful midfield three of Lavia, Caicedo and World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez alone has cost more than a quarter of a million pounds and it shouldn’t take long before the club’s spending under Boehly reaches the £1bn mark.
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They have already eclipsed the £260m spent last summer and £288m in January as Pochettino gets to work with an almost brand-new group of players, looking to build on last weekend’s opening 1-1 draw with Liverpool.
The question raised about Chelsea’s spending is how are they avoiding breaking any of the Financial Fair Play rules in place that were meant to restrict such lavish spending sprees?
How have Chelsea not breached financial fair play laws (FFP) this summer?
Under the Premier League’s profit and sustainably rules, a club can make a loss of £105m over a three-year period. If Chelsea return to the European scene this season, they will avoid doing so and avoid the kind of penalty which befell Juventus this summer, who were kicked out of the Europa Conference League for breaching FFP.
UEFA too have tightened their rules, but with Chelsea not in Europe this season, they don’t have to worry about that. One secret to their spending has been putting key signings on long-term contracts, such as January addition Mykhailo Mudryk, whose eight-and-a-half contract means he’s only costing Chelsea roughly about £10m a year.
Similarly, the likes of Caicedo have also signed mega long-term deals, and while fees themselves will be paid to clubs in a couple of instalments, accountancy wise it appears Boehly has found a loophole to limit the short-term financial damage.
When you sell a player, the money instantly enters the club accounts, such as the big sales of Kai Havertz and Mason Mount to Arsenal and Manchester United respectively this summer.
Chelsea’s last two sets of accounts have shown losses of £100m+, so there is still work to do to get back on track, with their spending spree showing no sign of slowing down.
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A 2023/24 season preview is available for Chelsea, which discusses how the Blues can recover from last campaign. Every single club in the top four tiers of English football have also been previewed.
Having already signed Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson in attack, the Blues have been linked with a sensational swoop for Kylian Mbappe. The two-time European champions are still trying to offload Romelu Lukaku, though, with the striker thought to favour a move to Juventus.
