How did Chelsea and Manchester City become the “sell kings” in the Premier League’s Big 6?
Never before in the Premier League has there been a spate of player sales like the one Chelsea have just completed: six players sold for £193m ($245m), giving Chelsea a fortune in 10 days.
Last Wednesday, Mount announced his move to Manchester United. It also brings to an end a busy deal that saw Koulibaly, Kovacic, Edouard Mendy, Havertz and Cheek all leave Stamford Bridge ahead of the first training session under coach Mauricio Pochettino.
Chelsea would have sold more players had Ziyech’s move to Saudi side Riyadh Victory not collapsed later in the day, but Chelsea have entered a new phase of their summer clean-up.
Never before in the Premier League has a club raised so much money in such a short period of time. Still, people were surprised by the sudden revenues, as the transfers of Koulibaly and Edouard Mendy, who went to Riyadh Crescent and Jeddah National respectively, depended on large sums paid by the Saudis. But through these revenues, Chelsea offset the huge net expenditure of 440 million pounds last season (that is, the transfer fee received from player sales minus the total expenditure on player purchases), as well as the cost of signing strikers Nkunku and Jackson this summer.
There could be more players leaving Stamford Bridge. If some of Chelsea’s remaining players, such as Lukaku, Aubameyang, Pulisic, Callum-Odoi, Cucurella, Ampadu and Matteson, can attract potential buyers, it will be very difficult. Bringing Chelsea’s final revenue this summer to £300m.
Of course, Chelsea still know how to write big checks better than any team, and they have been the biggest salesman in English football year after year.
Since the 2013-14 season, Chelsea have received a total of 1.16 billion pounds in transfer proceeds. In four of the past seven seasons, they have earned more than £100m from player sales. Neither Liverpool nor Arsenal have done that since 2017-18, and Tottenham since 2013-14. It was a feat that allowed them to overtake Manchester United.
Chelsea’s £500m net spend over the past decade is not something they can be proud of, but it’s their ability to sell players to balance the books that means they can still be as good as they are Keep buying players.
They just continued that pattern this summer, as they did in 2021-22. That year, Abraham, Zouma, Fikayo Tomori and Guey were sold, raising £100m for the team. Or when an agreement was reached with Real Madrid in the summer of 2019, Hazard’s bargaining chip happened to be cashed in. Additional clauses have since made the deal the highest-priced sale in Chelsea’s history.
The 2017-18 season is Chelsea’s biggest season for selling players so far. Diego Costa, Matic, Ake and Cuadrado have recovered 160 million pounds for the team during this year. The money from selling players supplemented the huge investment of the former boss Abramovich, and supplemented the funds for signings.
Only Manchester City can come close to Chelsea’s record in player sales over the past five years. Especially in the last two summers, the sale of a large number of players has offset Manchester City’s ambitious signing costs. Sterling, Jesus, Zinchenko and Ferran Torres were all sold in the two summer transfer windows, raising nearly £140 million for the team.
Selling players for big money sounds easy, but some teams in the Premier League’s Big Six have been stumbling in the usual ways of Chelsea’s success.
Just like Manchester United, the seller has only recovered 60 million pounds in the past three years. Their hopes of bucking the trend in the transfer market this summer are somewhat slim.
Another example is Arsenal. Their change in player buying strategy has not been offset by player sales. Things are expected to change at the Emirates Stadium this summer, with the futures of Xhaka, Thomas, Tierney and Balogun all uncertain. But so far Arsenal have recouped a fraction of the money they have spent since 2021.
The situation is similar for Tottenham. They sold Bergwijn to Ajax for £25m last summer, roughly offsetting the initial fee for signing the winger from PSV. It was also Spurs’ biggest transfer since Walker was sold to Manchester City for £45m in 2017. Brighton is the kind of club that many teams aspire to be, and they have made three times as much money from selling players as Tottenham in the past two years.
Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham can all make their recent records look better by selling their stars, but in general, this is not the way Chelsea have been relying on. At least since Hazard joined Real Madrid, they have not had a similar operation.
Both Mount and Havertz have been key players in this successful side, but most of Chelsea’s income of late has come from players they no longer need, just like Manchester City. Those sold were players who were marginalized by the team — but those players still had value. Despite all the criticism the club’s American owners, Burleigh and Clear Lake Capital, have scrapped and started anew.
United have been faltering in cleaning up their players. Daniel James was sold to Leeds United in 2021, and Smalling was sold to Roma a year ago, but when it comes to selling players, Manchester United have not always done very smoothly. On the contrary, they have to face heavy signings like Pogba to leave the team freely. De Gea is likely to be next.
That’s why United have silently accepted the limits of Financial Fair Play this summer. According to German transfer data, Manchester United’s net expenditure in the past three years was 472 million pounds. Of course, Chelsea spent more in total, but had a net spend of £411m over the same period. If you go back ten years ago, the contrast will be even more stark: Manchester United is 1.06 billion pounds, while Chelsea is 518 million pounds.
Importantly, according to the club’s accounts, during the decade, Chelsea earned £700m in profits from player sales, which directly contributed to the FFP calculation. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire said that Manchester United’s sales profit of only 132 million pounds in the same period was only 1/5 of that of Chelsea. Those stats don’t take into account players sold this summer.
It was Chelsea’s impressive youth system that made this possible. Cheek and Mount are the fourth and fifth Blues youth graduates to sell for more than £10m since 2021.
Including Abraham, Tomori and Guy who left before, Chelsea’s total income from selling these five players is close to 150 million pounds. For the FFP calculation period that has been extended over the past 12 months, all of this is calculated into the team’s profit. In this process, numerous loans, and the transfer fees involved in the loan, are beneficial.
United have not used the academy system to their advantage in the same way. Garner moved to Everton last summer in a move that could end up worth as much as £15m, the highest fee United have received from the sale of an academy graduate since Welbeck’s £16m move to Arsenal in 2014 .
In this regard, Manchester City’s operation is almost the same as Chelsea’s. The sale of goalkeeper Trafford, who had never played at the top level for Manchester City, to Burnley for a whopping £19m was a continuation of that trend. Last summer, Manchester City sold Bazunu, Lavia, Edozi and Lariosto to Southampton for nearly £40 million.
The truth is, if Chelsea want to continue spending as much as they are doing, they have to.
Chelsea earned £100m less than Manchester United and £110m less than Liverpool last season. Over the same period, Manchester City’s revenue increased by £140m. Stamford Bridge’s matchday income is the lowest in the Premier League’s big six, and their commercial income is still behind Tottenham. Selling players has become an effective means to make up for the shortage of funds.
Chelsea’s financial model, perhaps more than any rival in the Premier League’s big six, is reliant on transfer revenue. It must be bidirectional. In the past ten years, Chelsea’s revenue from player sales has been almost four times that of Arsenal and more than three times that of Manchester United.
Chelsea probably spent more than any Premier League club last season, but what happened this summer reminds us that there is still no team that sells players like they do.Return to Sohu to see more
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2023-07-11 16:00:00
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