Guardian writers’ predicted position: 3rd (NB: this is not necessarily Suzanne Wrack’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips) After a decade of domestic domination and the high of a domestic treble in 2024-25, last season’s one trophy – the League Cup – was not up to Chelsea’s usual standards and will leave a sour taste. A summer of change has followed, with some huge names departing. Millie Bright’s retirement, the exit of Catarina Macario, Sam Kerr and Guro Reiten to the NWSL in the US, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s move to Lyonnes and Niamh Charles’s to Manchester City reflect the scale of the change.
Meanwhile, Sonia Bompastor has welcomed Katie McCabe from Arsenal, Melvine Malard from Manchester United, Giulia Dragoni from Barcelona, Manaka Matsukubo from North Carolina Courage and Nelly Las from Leicester for Chelsea’s next cycle. Bompastor, in her third pre-season in London, is building the team for the way she wants to play and the environment she believes in. That process has taken time, with the balance needing to be struck between change and not throwing away a winning and working pre-existing culture.
She said: “I said last season we are facing a transition, and I think we are rebuilding in terms of refreshing the squad, rebuilding the culture within the team, and we’ll try our best. We’ll work as hard as possible to try to win trophies. There are fine margins, and sometimes as much as you work hard, things don’t always go the way you want.
It’s up to us to make sure we turn things our way.” The French manager inherited a strong side and had the influential and respected head of women’s football Paul Green at her side when she arrived. Now, with Emma Hayes’s old guard on the way out and the co-sporting directors, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, more involved, Bompastor faces a bigger test of her skills and Chelsea’s future looks a little less predictable. The door is open though, and with the champions, Manchester City, having to contend with Champions League football a repeat of last season’s title triumph is far from assured.
Chelsea posted turnover of £21.3m for the year ending 30 June 2025, up from £11.5m in 2023-24, with Chelsea and Arsenal together bringing in more than the rest of the league combined. There were lots of positives in Chelsea’s accounts, with broadcast revenue up from £1.7m to £2.27m and matchday revenue up from £2.69m to £3.01m. Their loss after tax has jumped too, though, from £8.42m to £17.10m.
However, a big part of that was their purchase of Kingsmeadow for £12.08m, which was widely reported to have taken place to help the men’s side of the club avoid breaching profitability and sustainability rules. Bompastor heads into her third full season at Chelsea with little to prove after four trophies in two seasons. However, this campaign presents a new challenge, giving the opportunity to demonstrate how well she can guide a team through a transition period.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
