I can stand for banter, I cannot stand for lies.
Alright, I got the cringe introduction out of the way. I don’t want to make this some melodramatic piece where I beg for your sympathy. But I had to lead with that, because at least some part of it is true–banter is banter, and lies are lies.
Over the past few months, I’ve noticed that the general public’s opinion on Chelsea Football Club is as negative as I’ve seen in my lifetime. But then again, why wouldn’t it be? The club sit a mediocre 11th in the Premier League, after spending £1.5B over the past year.
Indisputable facts, right?
Well, not really.
I mean, the club do sit 11th, let’s not rewrite history here.
But what piques my interest is the figure. “£1 billion spent”, they say. Where exactly did they get this figure from? If you’ve kept up with football at all over the past year, you’ll notice how fans and media members alike always bang on about the “£1 billion” that Chelsea have spent in constructing their current squad. The “blue billion pound bottle jobs”, as Gary Neville so graciously put it.
I am here to tell you that that statement is not only false and devoid of context, but also points to a larger narrative that’s formed around Chelsea since the club was sanctioned by the British government in March of 2022: “Let’s lie as much as we can about Chelsea, and see how far we can take it before anyone says anything.”
First, where does that “£1 billion” figure come from?
The narrative was first started by Sky Sports, namely through this graphic:
Note, this is money spent over 4 transfer windows and 2 years, meaning the club has not spent £1B in a single year like the graphic suggests.
This figure includes ridiculous add-ons, like Mykhailo Mudryk winning a Ballon D’Or (£20M). The list also includes teenagers who likely won’t even kick a ball for Chelsea until 2027 or later, so it’s dishonest to suggest they’re part of the “current squad”. Now, many of these signings are indeed bad and expensive signings, but they took place when Todd Boehly and Thomas Tuchel were working as de-facto sporting directors. Therefore, it’s disingenuous to say those signings are part of the current project, as mistakes were admitted and those players were swiftly sold the following summer (Kalidou Koulibaly, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang).
The graphic also implies that all of these players are part of Chelsea’s current squad, leading many to think Chelsea’s squad must consist of 40+ players, so injuries to 10-11 players are meaningless. This is also false, as Chelsea’s squad this season is roughly 27 players.
Now, what’s interesting is that the “real” fee, taking player sales into account and disregarding these ridiculous add-ons and players who aren’t even part of the club yet, is… £595M. Over 4 windows, £148M in net spend per window.
If you look at the data, you’ll find that most of England’s big clubs have spent relatively similar amounts of money in constructing their squad too. Read that again.
Let’s look at how much England’s big teams have spent in building their squad, compared to Chelsea.
These figures were calculated by summing up the transfer fee for each player (via Transfermarkt) in the official listed squad of each respective club for the 2023/2024 season. For Chelsea, I included their net-spend figure, as it’s very easy to pinpoint where the club’s rebuild started, and therefore easy to analyze how each sale affected each purchase. For other clubs, this is more challenging, as picking a date to start calculating sales from would be arbitrary and an educated guess at best. Thus, I excluded net-spend for the other clubs.
This is all to say that Chelsea’s spending, while unheard of over one year, is not out of the ordinary when compared to the overall squad cost of England’s big clubs. Of course, Chelsea’s results haven’t kept up with their spending, and that is a legitimate and valid criticism. But, more on that later.
Finally, you may ask, why did Chelsea spend so much in so little time? Other clubs have spent similar amounts of money, but that was over 4-5 years, not 1-2. Why did Chelsea rush into things, instead of building a squad piece by piece, over 2-3 years?
There’s an obvious explanation here, and it’s one that doesn’t paint the previous ownership in great light. Reports suggest the club had to speed up their ambitious project in anticipation of a transfer ban, due to unscrupulous dealings from the previous ownership. Illegal payments to agents, under-the-table agreements, the whole nine yards. For these reasons, I do expect the club to receive a transfer ban in the next 2-3 years, so look out for that. But, the club has essentially gotten ahead of that by assembling a young squad in such a short period of time, with players tied down to long-term deals.
Another explanation for rushing into a rebuild, can be the sanctions placed on the club by the British government, in March of 2022. With nearly half the squad having 18 months or less remaining on their contract, the British government decided the club would no longer be allowed to buy new players, agree to pre-agreements, or agree new contracts with existing players.
This put the club in a very difficult situation, and key starters like Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen, and Marcos Alonso were forced to exit the club on a free transfer. Note that the takeover by Clearlake Capital was made official on the 30th of May, 2022, which left the club just 68 days to replace these players, with no sporting director in place, no transfer strategy in mind. This led to a horrible summer window, which I believe set the club back about 12-18 months. The next 12-18 months after that, have been spent trying to fix those mistakes.
Okay, point made. Chelsea haven’t spent as much as the media says they have (relatively speaking), and there are valid reasons as to why the club rushed into a rebuild. The club have been cleaning up mistakes ever since the sanctions took place, and that can explain the club’s current position (to some extent).
But you may be thinking, so what? So what, Sumeet? What is the point of all this? Why are you so worked up about this? At the end of the day, the club are still 11th after spending £893 million, right? So why does any of this matter?
This leads me to my second point, which is about the lack of context that people use when they talk about Chelsea Football Club.
Remember when I said we’d get back to our spending? Here we are. Granted, the club have spent a LOT of money, and results haven’t kept up with spending habits whatsoever. Manchester City have spent £800 million, nearly £100 million less than Chelsea, but have won far, far more on the pitch. Liverpool have actually spent far less than Chelsea, and also won far more. In that regard, I am not asking for sympathy.
However, I am asking for context. The reason I care, and the reason I’m so annoying about the situation, is because the lack of context that surrounds the club doesn’t sit right with me. I understand we’ve spent a lot of money, and I understand the club simply isn’t very good right now.
That being said, did we, or did we not, spend the vast majority of the money on young players? Meaning, we will not see the fruits of our labor in 3-4 years, as opposed to today? Is that not something people think about? No, because they don’t care about context. Yes, Chelsea’s results haven’t kept up with their spending. But the vast majority of the budget has been spent on young, up-and-coming players, not players in their prime. Whether that’s a good decision or not can only be judged in a few years, and with all the context in mind. But, do people care? No, they look at our league place and go “Haha, Chelsea bad! No plan!”.
What about the sheer number of injuries? Does that not matter? What about how lackluster the coaching has been? Sure, the club are the ones who hired the last two coaches, but what club doesn’t mess up managerial appointments from time to time? Isn’t it possible for the club to get the next one right? Isn’t it possible that the next appointment is the one that spurs the project forward? Who knows what sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart have up their sleeves? I don’t, and neither do you.
Isn’t it possible, that when you look at Chelsea through an unbiased lens with as much context as possible, that Chelsea’s squad is actually fine? And that the club will be fine going forward? Is it not possible that a squad of young players needs more than just 6-7 months to gel, and that they could be a deadly force in 3-4 years?
You may call that copium, but I call it belief.
At the end of the day, nobody will give Chelsea the privilege of this context, and that’s where I take issue. People will lie about us and get away with it , because we’re simply not good right now. But, don’t let their lies take away from the overall project––this is a good squad with good players, it will take quite some time for me to change my mind on that. I think people’s perception of the club would change significantly if we started winning games (duh, obviously), but it would also change if people actually looked at the context surrounding us.
This is gaslighting at its finest, as people willingly choose to ignore the context, simply look at our league position, and make up their entire opinion. Again, I am not asking for sympathy, and we definitely don’t deserve it after spending so freely. But I am asking for people to stop lying about my club, and to just look at the context. Once you do, our position in the table becomes more clear, and people will see the future isn’t as doom and gloom as one might think.
Yes, the club are in this mess mostly through their own doing. No, some magic hand didn’t wave over the club and force them to sign 50+ players. A few of the signings have been objectively bad signings, sure. The same way we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess, if we are to get out of this mess, it will also be through our own doing. Many of the pieces are there. Not all is lost. There is a foundation, however small, to build upon.
You’ve read this far, so I will leave with you this– I am out of carrots, I am out of sticks. I have explained myself to the fullest extent possible, and will no longer partake in conversations of the sort (I expect to be arguing about this for the rest of my life).
I’ve made my bed, and I will lie in it, for better or worse. But I believe Chelsea do have a plan in place, and the one day, I will be proven right.
SKJ Sports 