Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has said there are questions over whether Chelsea can sell some of their players in the summer transfer window following an unprecedented spend in the previous two windows.
But Masters, who was speaking at the Financial Times’ Business of Football Summit, believes that it is too early to judge the new owners’ recruitment drive and it will not be for another three years before their true intentions are clear.
Chelsea spent a record £320m in the January window having committed more than £250m last summer with the new chairman Todd Boehly targeting young players on some of the longest contracts in Premier League history.
They will need to offload several members of a bloated squad before the start of next season with questions around their ability to satisfy financial fair play restrictions. Head coach Graham Potter remains unable to find a strongest XI and is struggling to give all of his big-name players sufficient playing time.
In January they broke the British transfer record to sign Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez for £107m and added the largely unproven Ukraine winger Mykhaylo Mudryk for £88m, in addition to several other long-term acquisitions.
“I’m not here to defend,” Masters said. “The new owners have had the club less than a year, they’ve had two transfer windows, you need to judge the football club after three or four years.
“They might have bought, I would argue, probably to a different transfer policy to the previous regime - younger players on longer contracts on lower wages - and obviously within our rules it’s a test over a 12-month period, so the question is whether they’re going to sell some of their players in the next window.
“And I don’t know the answer to that question - as I said I’m not here to defend them but you have to judge these things over a period of time.”
Today (Thursday) marks the one-year anniversary of Chelsea being put up for sale by Roman Abramovich. The club’s off-field structure has been entirely revamped under the Boehly and Clearlake Capital group and they announced on Tuesday that a fan advisory board would be formed to ensure a closer relationship between the hierarchy and supporters.
But their performances on the field have heaped the pressure on Potter, who replaced the sacked Thomas Tuchel in autumn. Chelsea have won only two of their past 15 games and sit closer to the relegation places than fourth place in the table.
Potter retains the owners’ backing for now and to let him go would see them pay out a record £50m in compensation after he signed a five-year deal.
