Back of the envelope maths….
Chelsea have made 34 signings for over 1bn in the last three windows, plus they are still carrying the final year(s) of Lukaku’s amortised transfer (and some others). All that means that by my calculations they are carrying amortised transfers costs of approximately 190-200m per season right now. Which is a lot. It’s especially a lot when their current wage bill is now the highest in the division at 502m per year. Meaning total player costs are around 700m per season currently. This set against last year’s record revenue of 656m. Not a pretty picture.
Some of that has already been offset by sales. But next year there will be no CL again and reality will start to bite. To be sustainable under PSR there will surely have to be sales, and the wage bill will have to get cut considerably on a bloated squad. Then there is the ability to actually sign players, which probably requires further sales. And none of this takes into consideration costs from constantly hiring and firing the whole coaching set up.
It’s possible the picture is rosier than I’ve painted it, but the year before the club lost 115m, and I’d imagine it’ll be the same or worse this year. I think it’s pretty clear that sales need to happen and they have to happen with players who have no remaining amortised transfer costs on the books. So fully amortised or homegrown players. Those sales will hit the books in their entirety, all at once, as pure profit. Hence Gallagher and Chabaloh being on the block, and Mount the year before.
