Chelsea have had a few remarkable transfer summers since their forced sale from Roman Abramovich's control in May 2022. Once again they were big spenders, outlaying £349m on 11 new signings such as Morgan Rogers, Maxence Lacroix and Emiliano Martinez. But there was something different this time.
Chelsea actually made a trading profit after selling 17 players. Another 22 were loaned out, four of those with either sell-on options or obligations totalling more than £140m. It meant a staggering 39 players left the club - and that is not including the four young players who were released.
And, remarkably after all that, the Chelsea website, external still lists a first-team squad on their books of 30 players. Here, we break down the Blues' remarkable summer of 50 deals, focusing on their 39 sales. Chelsea's internal figures suggest the club generated more than £500m in player departures during the summer window.
This includes loan fees and is a total that would represent a world record. Earlier this week BBC Sport's calculations, carried out by FootballTransfers.com founder Paul Macdonald, put the incomings at £349m and the outgoings at £382m. That figure did not include any potential loan option/obligation fees, or future clauses which are dependent on achieving certain targets.
Chelsea estimate they have made a profit of about £120m on transfer activity. Whichever way you add it up, their summer represents a staggering, record-breaking period of player trading in European football. Among the 39 players sold or loaned out were Enzo Fernandez, whose £125m move to Manchester City matched the British transfer record, and Senegal striker Nicolas Jackson, who joined Aston Villa for £65m.
Spain full-back Marc Cucurella moved to Real Madrid for £51.8m, while Liam Delap and Andrey Santos were each sold in deals worth around £50m. In fact Chelsea had five sales above £40m, or seven if you include two loans that have a £75m option (Mykhailo Mudryk to Tottenham) and a £43m obligation (Alejandro Garnacho to Villa). To put that into context, there were four £40m-plus signings in the whole of Serie A, two in La Liga and four in the German Bundesliga.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
