Chelsea’s big spending days could be over with the club believed to want to spend more efficiently going forward according to reports.
Since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Captial took over in 2022 the Blues have been free spending in the transfer market, forking out large sums on players.
In fact Chelsea have broken the British transfer record twice in the last three windows with the signings of Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo.
Chelsea want to spend more efficiently
It’s set be another busy summer with Chelsea believed to be looking at signing a left back, centre back and striker, as they they look to strengthen their squad in an attempt to get back into the Champions League.
The Athletic report the Blues want to spend more efficiently going forward, which suggests the budget this summer could be smaller, but it could also be considered an admission that they have overpaid in previous windows.
It does make sense given Chelsea have agreed a deal to sign centre back Tosin Adarabioyo on a free transfer from Fulham, whilst the club aren’t pursuing a move for Victor Osimhen due to the cost of the deal.
So far it seems the Blues are pursuing cheaper deals, which doesn’t mean they won’t spend any money, but perhaps the days of paying over £100m for players could be on the back burners for now.
Chelsea are targeting a move for RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko who has a reported release clause of £55m, which is considerably less than the £113m it would take to prize Osimhen away from Napoli.
The new ownership have made a concerted effort to reduce the club’s wage bill since coming in, with players now on a lower base wage, with performance based increases built in.
Whilst this is great, the only issue is that the top players want top wages, but perhaps Chelsea aren’t looking to sign the best of the best and are looking to build something more sustainable with younger players.
It’s only logical that spending 100m on every incoming player isn’t sustainable. The plan was obviously to clear out a lot of overpaid deadwood and in the course of 4-5 transfer windows completely re-stock the club with young talent. That job is largely done save for adding one or two more key pieces (a better keeper!), so, while we still have a few big names to unload, it only makes sense that we’d enter a new phase in terms of our transfer activity.