If Joao Felix's red card is proving to be expensive, costing an estimated £1.2m over the three match ban due to his loan fee of around £10m plus wages, then allow some thought for the rest of Todd Boehly's finances.
It's understandable that sympathy won't be rife for a billionaire owner that has pumped the best part of £400m into the club in a little under nine months, but Chelsea's current situation is unprecedented.
Graham Potter is at a stage at Stamford Bridge that he can almost - game to game dependent currently - fill an entire XI of unavailable players. Albeit attack-heavy it would also fare relatively well across the pitch as well, not just a deficit in one position but an equally spread loss.
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It's created an issue for the manager with his selection during the testing run of results he has had to endure but hasn't entirely excused the new boss from the poor run of form his side have been on. The argument that Chelsea's unavailable XI is stronger than their current setup is not entirely false. It would be a good game, for sure.
Give these circumstances to any top team and top coach and they would struggle. Jurgen Klopp's centre-back options were decimated in 2021 and the German boss struggled having been Premier League champions, European Cup winners and runners-up in the previous two years.
As for Chelsea, to put a monetary value on it, Potter is without nearly £400m worth of players right now. For players such as Reece James and Armando Broja we have used their Transfermarkt valuation (£61m for James and £26m for Broja) as well as £11m for Felix on loan (well below his transfer price) and the £26m option to buy for Denis Zakaria.
The other missing players in this list are Edouard Mendy, Wesley Fofana, Christian Pulisic, Raheem Sterling and N'Golo Kante.
So, although Chelsea do have a remarkable number of players currently on their books - including a spate of first team ready stars on loan - and Boehly is only adding to this in January, there is reason for it. Their attacking options in particular are plentiful. Considering the incoming Christopher Nkunku alongside Romelu Lukaku and Callum Hudson-Odoi, there are an entire XI of attackers employed by the club.
Mykhailo Mudryk for £62m plus add-ons is included in that and Boehly's spending has been described as reckless, whilst others would argue it is also necessary. As for Potter, he hasn't gone as far as to use injuries as the excuse for Chelsea's spending but he is always willing to point out the factors that have led to this situation.
Speaking after the loss to Fulham, he said: "I think the basics we can do better in terms of our defending and some of our football actions.
"But at the same time, we get back in the game and then the red card...it's where we're at at the moment in terms of things that can happen to us. We lost Denis [Zakaria] beforehand as well and were just adjusting with Jorginho and then Joao [Felix] – who was having a fantastic impact on the game and you could see his quality – to lose him and to lose him for three matches is really disappointing."
Even before that he had addressed the problems after losing to Manchester City in the league, saying, "I’ve never experienced anything like it and I’d ideally not want experience it here. But it is what it is, I have to just carry on.”
In essence, Boehly's spending is extensive but to spend £400m and then to be without £400m worth of players is a reality check. The Blues are consistently labelled as a side having spent vast amounts of money only to find themselves 10th in the league, which is true, but when those assets aren't available it provides some perspective on the landscape at the club, on and off the field.
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