In the last ten years, no other club in Europe has made as much money as Chelsea from selling their players. Chelsea also has one of the lowest net spends amongst their European rivals.
Let that sink in.
The complaints from Chelsea fans have been deafening. There are shouts for Marina Granovskaia's business model to be dropped and abandon the conventional way we do our business.
The uproar is unsurprisingly unjustified. It hasn't been all bad despite not having the most luxurious transfer windows pre 2021 under Granovskaia's reign.
We are still ahead of our rivals in some respect, not only on net spend but also on trophies. That in itself should be celebrated and hailed as a miraculous effort from the Chelsea director.
According to a new study published by the Football Observatory, Chelsea has made over £1 billion from selling on their players since 2012. The highest in Europe. Having spent £1.4 billion in the same time period, they now have a net spend of £346.9m. They were significantly lower than their Premier League rivals, Manchester United, Manchester City, and Arsenal.
It's not a bonus for Chelsea to see on the pitch, but finances are just as necessary off the pitch. I used to believe that teams such as Barcelona were untouchable for their finances. I grew up with them having the best players with the highest wages, and nobody batted an eyelid. Now they are having financial issues and are in a predicament where the "sell to buy" business model is no longer a choice. It is a necessity.
Nine teams have a much higher net spend than Chelsea and have not won as many European trophies as the Blues in the last ten years. This includes Barcelona, Juventus, PSG, Man United, Arsenal, and Man City.
Marina Granovskaia is the mastermind behind keeping Chelsea's expenditure to a minimum. Would I have liked Chelsea to spend hundreds of millions on big-name players across the world? Yes. I also would have loved for the Blues to have broken the bank for Erling Haaland in the last summer transfer window.
It's easy to sit here as a fan and wonder what could have been if we had just spent more money. We have just spent over £300m on a new attack over the last two years. Many argue that the group of players chosen wasn't ideal. They'll argue that Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech were mistakes that should have been better thought out, and we should look to spend more money to replace them.
Well, at least we have our Champions League Trophy.
The business model works! The 'Iron Lady' might not be everyone's cup of tea but the net spend and club success to go with it speaks volumes.
Of course, I would have loved for Granovskaia to have flaunted Roman Abramovich's riches and gone all out for players such as Virgil Van Dijk back in 2017. However, we've been just fine without them.
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