Chelsea needing a summer exodus is nothing new, even with the publication of their worrying 2021/22 accounts. The club announced on Monday that it made losses of over £121m across that period, a large number but still less than the 12 months previous under the previous regime.
The time span only overs the early months of Todd Boehly/Clearlake Capital heading the Blues as owners but it had repercussions for them regardless. As commericial and marketing pioneers from America, their plans to raise revenue beyond precedented levels is a long way off.
This is just one avenue to cover though with player sales and matchday income another important aspect of the club's functions. A notable part of the statement came towards though, making a point that fans and even players will be concerned about.
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"Despite the loss in the year and the operating challenges due to the sanctions, the Club continues to comply with UEFA and Premier League financial regulations," it reads. A small but important bit to explore here.
Chelsea, after their mammoth transfer windows under Boehly and Co, are under a certain amount of pressure to improve their financial results in order to comply with the European cut off set by UEFA. Financial Fair Play, which has come for its own scrutiny in recent years for lax compliance and sustaintment.
Regardless, after spending £600m across two windows with the promise of more to come in the summer, Chelsea need to balance the books somewhat. "The Club invested £118.0 million in the playing squad during the 2021/22 financial year, including existing player contract renegotiations," the club wrote.
"In addition, the Club made a profit on player trading of £123.2 million in the year, including the sales of Tammy Abraham to AS Roma, Marc Guehi to Crystal Palace, Fikayo Tomori to AC Milan, and Kurt Zouma to West Ham."
In this sense it came out with a profit but there is a key difference between how new signings and departures go down in the accounts. Whereas any sum received from a transfer - outside of add ons - goes down as a lump figure in the books. When buying a player that cost is spread across the length of their contract.
Therefore, despite deals worth £62m for Mykhailo Mudryk and £106.8m for Enzo Fernandez - the combined total of those two alone being more than the £118m mentioned - they are massively reduced across the massive eight years deals when accounted for.
However, with a 33-man squad, underperforming and overpaid stars still rife within the group and the commitment to paying for players over such a long period, Chelsea need to keep finding ways to balance the sheets. On top of that, their poor season domestically means that the lucrative broadcast and financial rewards of European football will further reduce their income next season.
Finance expert Kieran Maguire has explained the true effect this could have. "Failing to qualify for the Champions League would put Chelsea in a really challenging position," he told Sussex Live. "The one thing you can say about Chelsea is that they have lots of players they can sell and lots have come through the academy. If you look at Conor Gallagher, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Callum Hudson-Odoi, they could sell them and make a big profit on them."
Players such as those mentioned would not only bring in a sizeable sum, with each of them capped for England and Premier League proven, they are also seen as pure profit due to no ammotised cost in the books. Coming from Cobham and within the academy is a big boost but also presents its issues here, making those same first-team players the most easily sellabale assets.
"They have got far too many players," Maguire adds. "The challenge for them, [Romelu] Lukaku is on a quarter of a million a week, and his contract doesn't expire until 2026. Some of the players that have come in are on big contracts. They are effectively locking themselves into a £100k-£150k a week on these players for many, many years.
"If the player doesn't do well, who is going to take them off Chelsea's hands? That is when the problems really start to crystalise."
For Boehly, who is not only invested in making the club a better ran financially but also on the pitch, it creates a dilemma. Gallagher and Loftus-Cheek are cheaper to keep than other first team stars doing a similar job but they have more immediate value. The quickest way to balance the books is to sell these players - as was done with Tomori, Abraham and Guehi in 2021 - but then the loss comes on the field.
It's a big decision for the owner to make and one that he is under serious pressure from FFP implications to get right.
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