Chelsea had just endured their worst ever Premier League season, but Eddie Howe was not about to gloat as the Newcastle United boss warned that those sides who 'did not have the season they wanted will come back fighting'. At the forefront of his mind was an expensively-assembled Chelsea outfit under the management of Mauricio Pochettino.
"Next season they will be a big threat," he told reporters in his final pre-match press conference of the campaign last month. "They have got top quality players - that's undoubted - but trying to form a team very quickly with a lot of new players is very difficult to do.
"That has probably been their biggest challenge but, next year, a lot of those players will now have Premier League experience. They will have adjusted to the league and they will be a big threat."
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Howe did not know it at the time, but Chelsea were also going to be bolstered by fresh investment from - of all people - Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). It is the PIF who look set to help ease the Blues' Financial Fair Play concerns after Newcastle's part-owners took charge of the four biggest clubs in the Kingdom, whose top targets are all playing at Stamford Bridge. Without this lifeline, Chelsea might not have been able to do quite as much business as they plan to later this summer.
While the majority of the additions Chelsea's owners have made in a £600m spending spree have been tied to remarkably lengthy deals, to spread the cost of the fee over their contracts, the Blues still need to generate funds to comply with FFP. After all, the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules only allow clubs to lose a maximum of £105m over a rolling three-year period. Chelsea, who will argue they have previously had to contend with government sanctions imposed on former owner Roman Abramovich, posted losses of £121m for the 2021/22 season and £153.4m in 2020/21.
That is why you are likely to see a number of Chelsea players sold before the month is out because Pochettino's side have the added incentive of pushing through these deals before June 30, which would enable the sales to be added to the accounts for the season just gone.
While this, in theory, weakens Chelsea's hand in negotiations - clubs know they need to offload players - the Blues' predicament has coincided with the effective relaunch of the Saudi Pro League. The PIF, who, of course, own an 80% stake in Newcastle, have taken control of Saudi Arabia's four largest clubs - Al Ahli, Al Ittihad, Al Hilal and Al Nassr - and the sovereign wealth fund have vowed that will 'unleash various commercial opportunities, including investment'. It is Chelsea who stand to be the immediate beneficiaries.
Just as Chelsea need to raise funds, reduce an eye-watering wage bill and cut a bloated squad, the PIF need standard bearers, players with international reputations. Chelsea, unlike Newcastle, just so happen to have a plethora of them available.
There are also longstanding links between Chelsea's owners and the PIF, and this is certainly not the first time they have done business. Far from it Indeed, Todd Boehly, who has been on the ground in Saudi Arabia this month, sits on the board of Cain International while another of Chelsea's part-owners, Jonathan Goldstein, is the company's CEO. Why is that relevant? Well, Cain previously teamed up with the PIF for a $900m investment in the Aman Group less than a year ago.
Pushing through a handful of player transfers pales in comparison to a deal of this magnitude and negotiations are already advanced for a number of players. N'Golo Kante is close to sealing a move to champions Al Ittihad; Edouard Mendy and Hakim Ziyech look set to join Al Ahli and Al Nassr respectively; Kalidou Koulibaly is wanted by Al Hilal; and even Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, who scored just three goals last season, has his admirers in Saudi Arabia. Yes, really.
These players' best years may be behind them, but the PIF are bidding to more than quadruple the league's commercial revenues, to £386m, so that stargazed strategy should not come as a surprise. In fact, it was what some outsiders thought would happen at Newcastle, the so-called 'richest club in the world', following the takeover.
Although Newcastle have since gone on to spend more than £250m in transfer fees, those at the top have adopted a considered approach - targeting Dan Burn and Chris Wood rather than Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema - and Financial Fair Play regulations have been at the forefront of their minds.
Chelsea's owners adopted a very different approach yet the Blues may be about to dig themselves out of their FFP hole. With the help of the PIF.
