Chelsea are spending on strengthening the amounts comparable to the costs of entire championships

London “Chelsea” was marked by a very remarkable achievement. On Monday, the team announced the closing of a record transfer deal for the English Premier League (EPL), in which Moises Caicedo was bought from Brighton for € 133 million. Thus, in just over a year after control of Chelsea ”passed over to the American entrepreneur Todd Böhli, the club spent more than € 1 billion on the purchase of new players. No one has ever spent money on strengthening in football at such a speed. And with the summer transfer window still two weeks away, Chelsea are sure to spend even more.

On Monday night Chelsea announced the closing of a deal for the transfer of Ecuadorian midfielder Moises Caicedo from Brighton. In addition to the fact that it became a record for the Premier League – none of the teams in the richest league in the world had previously paid £115 million (€133 million) for a football player, it allowed Londoners, or rather their owner, American entrepreneur Todd Boehley, to overcome what is called psychological mark. After all, £906 million has already been spent on the purchase of new players under him. At the current exchange rate, this amounts to €1.053 billion.

Recallthat Mr Boely acquired Chelsea last May. The former owner of the club, Roman Abramovich, was forced to sell it after he was on the EU and UK sanctions lists (Todd Boehley’s total purchase costs were £4.25bn – £2.5bn was paid for the club itself, another £1.75 billion Mr. Beuly undertook to invest in its development). That is, Todd Boehley owns the team for only 15 months, which fit three transfer campaigns – summer 2022, winter 2023 and summer, still ongoing (in the Premier League, the transfer window closes on September 1).

It turns out that, on average, Todd Boehley allocates almost £67 million a month to strengthen Chelsea.

For comparison: Mr. Abramovich, after acquiring the team, which in 2003 could not claim the current status of a superclub, in the first year of ownership, invested three times less monthly in its strengthening. In the future, after the Londoners improved their financial and sports performance, investments did not greatly exceed receipts. Over the two decades that Roman Abramovich owned Chelsea, he spent no more than £2 billion on the club. And even those were issued to the team in the form of loans, though they did not require maintenance.

In total, during the time that Chelsea is owned by Todd Boehley, almost three dozen new players have appeared in the team. The range of amounts that the Londoners paid for the players, the widest. There are several free transfers, and many transfers ranging from £6m to £35m, a number of deals valued between £50m and £90m. At the top are two transfers worth over £100m. In addition to the mentioned transfer of Caicedo ” Chelsea in January gave for the Argentinean Enzo Fernandez £111 million (at that time it was a Premier League record). In addition, the purchase of Belgian midfielder Romeo Lavia from Southampton for £50 million has been practically agreed.

To illustrate the enormity of Todd Boehley’s investment in strengthening Chelsea, of course, one must compare it with the costs incurred by other top clubs.

For example, since 2019, Real Madrid has been considered the record holder for spending per transfer window. Madrid then spent, according to Transfermarkt, €326m. Chelsea’s spending this summer has already reached €340m.

If we take into account the costs not for one transfer window, but for the entire season, then Chelsea became the record holder at the end of the 2022/23 season, when he spent €611 million on players. /18 Barcelona record (€380m).

Oddly enough, but the situation is such that in terms of spending on transfers, Chelsea already need to be compared not with individual teams, but with entire leagues, and not just some provincial ones, but directly from the top 5. One of them, the Spanish La Liga, was even beaten by Chelsea. After all, Spanish top-flight clubs have spent only €893m on reinforcements since last summer. So Chelsea is a whole league in terms of spending. Until the end of the transfer window, the London club, in theory, can even bypass the Bundesliga. Its current figure is €1.1 billion (this is the fourth place). France’s Ligue 1 (€1.3bn) and Italy’s Serie A (€1.6bn) are not that far off. The undisputed leader with an indicator of €5.1 billion is the Premier League. It is clear that Chelsea cannot even theoretically compete with her, since he himself is part of it.

Of course, such a high activity of Chelsea in the transfer market has raised doubts about the club’s ability to meet the rules of financial fair-play (FFP). But the Londoners actively used a loophole in the rules, signing contracts with the players for seven or eight years, as well as negotiating with the selling clubs to pay for the transfer in installments, which made it possible to distribute costs over time and fit into the regulations. The old, in general, trick, tested in the North American leagues, where, after the introduction of salary caps, contracts with players for 15 years or more began to appear, has already been limited by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). In June, it ruled that a player’s “amortization” period could not be spread over more than five years (the rule is not retroactive). Considering, however, that Chelsea will not play in European competition in the new season (in the last English championship, Londoners were only 12th), which means that they may not be afraid of sanctions from UEFA, he continued the practice of signing long-term contracts. With the same Caicedo signed an eight-year contract. Now, as reported Daily Mailthe Premier League clubs are already demanding that she revise the internal regulations in order to keep the Londoners.

However, Chelsea, if you look closely, may well meet the requirements of the FFP without having to resort to tricks. After all, Londoners not only buy, but also sell players, helping out substantial sums.

Chelsea have sold €321 million worth of players since last summer, according to Transfermarkt. This is the best figure in the Premier League and second in Europe. Only Ajax received more from the sale of players. Before the transfer window closes, the Londoners can further unload the squad, which will positively affect their balance sheet.

Alexander Petrov