The experiment that will unfold at Chelsea over the next few years under the leadership of American investors will be an interesting case study in how to run a football club.
Because no one in England has ever seen anything like what has happened at Stamford Bridge in the last two years.
Think about it for a moment. Since a consortium led by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehley and Clearlake Capital bought the Premier League club from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich for $3.2 billion in May 2022, Chelsea have spent close to $1.3 billion on 39 players in five transfer windows.
During this period, the club has had four permanent managers and one caretaker manager. The revolving door at Chelsea, six-time English champions and two-time European champions, has never stopped turning.
“It’s not a mess,” Chelsea’s newly appointed manager Enzo Maresca said on Wednesday, as he sought to explain the wisdom of bringing in wingers Pedro Neto and Joao Felix for a combined $130 million last week to take the squad to 43.
They already have five wingers on the team, one of whom, Mikhael Mudric, was signed for more than $100 million last year, while another, Raheem Sterling, was signed for nearly $60 million as the first signing of an unprecedented two-year trolley dash.
Sterling was stripped of his squad number after Neto’s arrival and Maresca is one of about 20 players who are “training separately”, including striker Romelu Lukaku, who was signed for a then club record $135 million three years ago, and goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who was signed for $92 million and is now the world’s most expensive goalkeeper.
There doesn’t seem to be much point to this new era at Chelsea.
“It’s been a tough thing to keep up with,” Dr. Dan Plumley, a sports finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University, told The Associated Press. “It shows no signs of slowing down.”
Plumley said it was not unexpected that Chelsea owners had been “aggressive” in the transfer market for the first time, building up their squad. Spending $280 million in the summer of 2022, $350 million in January 2023 and more than $400 million in the off-season that year was unprecedented for a football club. That’s more than $250 million for 10 players in the current transfer window.
“You think, ‘That was an initial burst, but now it needs to be contained a little bit,’” Plumley said in a phone interview. “But they seem to be continuing, and that raises some questions about what the actual strategy is and what the owners are trying to do.”
Drawing on their experience in private equity and venture capital, Boelli and Clearlake have very different approaches to football ownership and have set different goals for addressing the sport’s financial fair play constraints.
They typically give new signings seven to nine year contracts, spreading the “amortisation” cost of the transfer fee over the entire deal. This has led to UEFA and the Premier League tightening their rules, and is a risky strategy overall, as it leaves Chelsea extremely vulnerable if a player they sign turns out to be a flop and cannot be transferred.
They have focused on selling domestic or academy players because they can essentially be sold for pure profit in the annual accounts, which helps them buy other more high-profile players in write-down deals. So Conor Gallagher, who was vice-captain last season, left this week, and young players like Ian Martson, Lewis Hall and Omari Hutchinson left in the latter half of last financial year to balance the finances in a way that some saw as unconventional.
According to the latest reports, Chelsea’s owners are said to have sold two hotels at Stamford Bridge to another company they own. The deal is being closely watched by the Premier League. They are also considering selling a stake in their successful women’s team to raise funds.
Plumley said Chelsea’s strategy had left the club “very close… no, way beyond” the Premier League’s revenue and sustainability rules, which could potentially mean the club face a future points deduction, similar to what Everton and Nottingham Forest suffered last season.
It also doesn’t help Chelsea that they are currently not playing in the lucrative men’s Champions League, which costs the club close to $100 million a season in revenue.
“It was a big risk to start with and it’s still a big risk now,” Plumley said of Chelsea’s owners’ approach. “There are all sorts of things that can cause problems down the road.”
But the biggest problem in the short term is inexperienced manager Maresca, who must deal with a disgruntled squad with Chelsea keen to offload star internationals including Lukaku, Sterling and Ben Chilwell.
“I work with 21 players. The other 15 or 20 train separately,” Maresca said. “They are Chelsea players, but they don’t work with me. I don’t see them.”
The season began with a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, and has produced a strong squad dynamic, with the Premier League campaign continuing with an away game at Wolverhampton on Sunday.
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AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
