Chelsea Thread - 2023/24

[I'm With Stupid]

LOL

According to Transfermarkt (in Euros).

Out
Havertz €75m
Mount €64.5m
Kovacic €29.1m
Koulibaly €23m
Pulisic €20m
Mendy €18.5m
Loftus Cheek €16m
Kepa €1m loan fee

In
Nkunku €60m
Disasi €45m
Jackson €37m
Ugochukwu €27m
Sanchez €23m
Angelo €15m

Balance +€47.9m

They've not bought the likes of Caicedo yet.

 

[Roachy]

The time to join Chelsea was when they had that gorgeous doctor.

Huge amount of minor groin strains in the squad when she was there I heard.

 

[SebastianBlue]

According to Transfermarkt (in Euros).

Out
Havertz €75m
Mount €64.5m
Kovacic €29.1m
Koulibaly €23m
Pulisic €20m
Mendy €18.5m
Loftus Cheek €16m
Kepa €1m loan fee

In
Nkunku €60m
Disasi €45m
Jackson €37m
Ugochukwu €27m
Sanchez €23m
Angelo €15m

Balance +€47.9m

They've not bought the likes of Caicedo yet.

That is only this summer, and the reporting is over their entire 18 months acquisition period (and beyond, with much of it not yet being assessed for FFP compliance).

Beyond that, my post was about the full financial standing, not just transfers. Revenue versus expenditures—even if they manage to get special dispensation for their amortisation structure—are going to be very problematic. Their struggles last season are going to have significant implications moving forward, as well.

One has to look beyond merely the nominal fees for incomings and outgoings reported on Transfermarkt.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

That is only this summer, and the reporting is over their entire 18 months acquisition period (and beyond, with much of it not yet being assessed for FFP compliance).

Beyond that, my post was about the full financial standing, not just transfers. Revenue versus expenditures—even if they manage to get special dispensation for their amortisation structure—are going to be very problematic. Their struggles last season are going to have significant implications moving forward.

Well yeah, last summer is an absolute pisstake. I'm just responding to the 'How can Chelsea still be spending these huge sums of money?' rhetoric. It reminds me a bit of similar shit about us, where people never took into account the huge amounts of money we were bringing in with sales.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Well yeah, last summer is an absolute pisstake. I'm just responding to the 'How can Chelsea still be spending these huge sums of money?' rhetoric. It reminds me a bit of similar shit about us, where people never took into account the huge amounts of money we were bringing in with sales.

That’s fair enough. I just wanted to clarify I was talking about the full operations under the new Boehly regime, which are problematic from the standpoint of current FFP conventions (at best).

I do think they have genuinely decided that having not qualified for Europe, and seeing the writing on the wall for FFP given other legal/regulatory challenges (including ours) and disruptive influence of Saudi spending in the market, that they have chosen to just go with a “fuck it, we’ll spend what we want” approach with an eye of returning to their previous strategy of just acquiring all of the best youth talent they can get their hands on.

And Liverpool ownership are panicking over it all, as such an outcome would destroy their extractive business model.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

That’s fair enough. I just wanted to clarify I was talking about the full operations under the new Boehly regime, which are problematic from the standpoint of current FFP conventions (at best).

I do think they have genuinely decided that having not qualified for Europe, and seeing the writing on the wall for FFP given other legal/regulatory challenges (including ours) and disruptive influence of Saudi spending in the market, that they have chosen to just go with a “fuck it, we’ll spend what we want” approach with an eye of returning to their previous strategy of just acquiring all of the best youth talent they can get their hands on.

And Liverpool ownership are panicking over it all, as such an outcome would destroy their extractive business model.

Maybe. It's a high risk strategy though. It also shows a level of strategic thinking that they don't seem to have demonstrated in their actual acquisitions so far.

 

[waspish]

To summarise the prevailing thoughts of the forum (and other analysts) for those just catching up:

The theory on the forum, which I think may have some merit, is that Chelsea are doing this insane programme of acquisition (and self reporting about the violations by the club under the Abramovich regime) because they actually plan to break both UEFA and PL FFP and they are trying to get all of the best youth talent on long contracts before transfer fees get even more insane and so they can get through the likely transfer and European bans, on the bet that FFP will eventually be abandoned based on both legal challenges (unlawful restriction of commerce / free trade) and league competitiveness coming under pressure from Saudi spending (essentially an existential threat).

Let's hope so because like I've always said clubs should be able to spend what they want!

 

[waspish]

They've spent -£40m this summer.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Maybe. It's a high risk strategy though. It also shows a level of strategic thinking that they don't seem to have demonstrated in their actual acquisitions so far.

I would say it is likely more a case of them falling in to it because of Boehly’s erratic decision making in the first 12 months of ownership than a product of real strategic thinking, but they are deciding now to lean fully in to it as a—as you said—highly risky bet.

 

[Jam Tomorrow]

The oddest thing about the Chelsea spending is they still look bang average and don’t even have a recognised centre forward or prolific goal scorer. I may be wrong but their squad looks light years behind ours.