Just hours after making Morgan Rogers the most expensive British footballer in history with a £117m move from Aston Villa, Chelsea agreed to loan Alejandro Garnacho to the same club. The double deal highlights a transfer strategy built on selling assets to fund purchases, even as the club carries more than £1bn in liabilities.
Chelsea’s financial position has improved since last summer, when they were fined £26.7m and placed under a four-year settlement agreement with Uefa. They were recently fined another £2.6m for breaching Uefa’s financial rules, though £1.7m of that can be written off if they continue to cut spending or boost revenue by next summer.
“Chelsea signed Rogers for £117m and loaned Garnacho to Villa, despite £1bn debts and record losses.”
The Blues sold about £300m worth of players last season – a Premier League record – and expect to generate a similar figure this time. They have already raised more than £120m through player sales and spent between £164m and £210m, depending on whether pre-contract signings including Geovany Quenda, Emmanuel Emegha and Valentin Barco are counted alongside Rogers and Marco Palestra since Xabi Alonso became manager.
Chelsea view stockpiling talent as an investment they can cash in on when needed. Transfermarkt values their squad at £1.3bn, behind only Manchester City in the Premier League and fourth-highest in Europe.
But the club’s latest accounts – for 2024-25 – revealed a Premier League record loss of £262m within the club’s companies, with losses of £701m at parent-company level. That has pushed total liabilities beyond £1bn across the parent company.
Sources close to the ownership group insist the investment model, which uses third-party loan providers, is highly structured, common among elite sports organisations and focused on long-term sustainability. They also project a big jump in revenue to a club-record £700m in the next set of accounts.
Football finance analyst Maguire said: “So, 85% is their PSR compliance with the Premier League but that does give them a slight advantage. If you look at the small print of the Premier League’s SCR rules, you can spend up to 115% of revenue on your player costs because that takes you up to what we refer to as the red zone. Provided you’re in the red zone and don’t go beyond it, you still end up effectively paying a tax on additional costs, rather than having a points deduction.”
Maguire added: “Chelsea would have looked at the rules and established it. I’m sure they are looking to sell more players.”
Rogers signed a six-year contract with an option for a further year. Chelsea are not finished in the transfer market, but with debts mounting and a fine hanging over them, the juggling act is far from over.