The best way to respond to Chelsea having to pay a £5m penalty fee because of their failure to meet a £25m obligation to buy Jadon Sancho from Manchester United is with a shrug.
There is no tale of excess, no evidence of scattergun thinking from the recruitment team at Stamford Bridge, no stick with which to beat Todd Boehly. In fact it is not even much of a punishment. A penalty clause is one way of framing it; another is that it is the equivalent of a standard loan fee and that all Chelsea are doing is making a delayed payment after not being asked for one when the deal to borrow Sancho went through on the final day of last summer’s transfer window.
