Chelsea had to lighten the load this summer due to heavy expenses for two windows

Last year’s takeover of Chelsea by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital triggered spending in the transfer market on a level English football had never seen before.

Some £600million has been spent in two transfer windows since Chelsea became US owners, with Boehly, Clearlake and other minority investors including Hansjörg Wyss winning a bitter bidding war to take over the club for 2 £.5 billion last year, following the forced sale of the club from former owner Roman Abramovich due to UK government sanctions.

The likes of Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk, Nordi Mukiele, Benoit Badiashile, Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and others have joined, while a deal was struck in December to bring in RB Leipzig striker Christopher Nkunku this summer.

Faced with financial fair play considerations from UEFA and the Premier League, Chelsea opted for the tactic of offering players contracts of up to nine years to allow transfer fees to be amortized over a longer period.

A transfer, whether paid in full or in instalments, is recorded in the amortization accounts where the guaranteed transfer fee, excluding any surcharges, is divided by the number of years of the contract the player signed in Europe, the maximum duration is generally five years.

UEFA have introduced a rule to tackle the use of delistings in this way, capping contracts at five years from this summer, although there are potential loopholes to include three or four-year options in favor of the club to sign contracts to renew his signings. and downsize contracts at amortized cost at a later date.

In the first season, it did not yield any results. Not almost. The sacking of Champions League winner Thomas Tuchel as head coach earlier in the season was deeply unpopular and the decision to hire Graham Potter from Brighton as part of a long-term view of how the club will run turned out to be imperfect.

Then came the return of Frank Lampard, who had a series of spectacular failures on his managerial CV that saw Chelsea finish in an embarrassing 12th place. Mauricio Pochettino will be the man in the dugout next season as the former Tottenham Hotspur manager has agreed a deal to take the club forward.

The expensive squad assembled before his arrival means that there is limited room to maneuver this summer and the reckless spending of last summer and January will only be possible if progress is made in reimbursing funds from players who are not no longer necessary, with the club’s payroll. to be reduced.

Chelsea’s approach to transfer activity over the past two windows has had an impact on the market. It raised the transfer bar, an effect similar to what happened when Abramovich took over at Stamford Bridge in 2003, changing the landscape of English football forever.

But after a deeply disappointing season, selling off some of the assets they were looking to pass on at high prices would have been difficult.

But developments in Saudi football over the past few weeks have opened the door to a potential opportunity to claw back big bucks and give them the kind of flexibility that would allow them to cause problems for Liverpool and the rest of their rivals on the transfer market. this summer.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund, which owns Newcastle United and the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund, reached a deal earlier this month to acquire four of the country’s top Saudi Pro League teams; Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad, Al-Nasr and Al-Ahli.

It was a step taken to evolve clubs into large, sustainable businesses that could begin to challenge the global dynamics of football.

It’s a move that has already caught the eye, much like China’s major push for a similar plan a few years ago.

Cristiano Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr last year to get the ball rolling and this summer Karim Benzema opted to leave Real Madrid for Al-Ittihad, while Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Ruben Neves, 26, has joins Liverpool is once linked with a move to Barcelona this summer and is set to join Al-Hilal for around £47million.

Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante is set to make a move to Al-Ittihad which is set to earn him over £80m a year, while other players such as Hakim Ziyech, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Edouard Mendy and Koulibaly have all attracted interest from Saudi Pro League clubs.

It’s an interest that could solve a major Chelsea problem and is not without controversy.
Chelsea co-owner Clearlake’s majority shareholder is PIF, although the club rejected proposals for Saudi involvement in Chelsea’s takeover last year.

But after Boehly traveled to Saudi Arabia last week for talks with Al-Hilal and the already established relationship between PIF and Clearlake was established, the question arose as to how this might affect the search for a new home for the players they want to be.

deducted from their wages so that they can continue to be strong in the transfer market.

If Chelsea were able to manage their situation by dumping players for big bucks in Saudi Arabia, it would help solve a problem that would see them heading towards goals this summer, some of which they share with Liverpool.

This presents another challenge for the Reds in the market, although one of the biggest challenges they face is the growing strength of the Saudi league, as they now have near limitless wealth behind their growth plans.

The changes of Ronaldo, Benzema and Kante were already known. MLS tried star power, as did China. As China strove to become a global footballing power, it caused a stir when it was able to bring top players like Oscar and Alex Teixeira to the Far East. The project failed due to China’s poor economic performance and the massive impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Thanks to a World Cup in the Middle East, the region’s investment in European football and a growing interest in soccer, and with huge financial resources to back it up, the Saudi project appears to have greater longevity potential.

But with the huge sums of money paid out, not bound by UEFA rules like their European counterparts, Saudi PIF clubs can outwit even the strongest branches of football in Europe.

This poses potential problems for clubs such as Liverpool and others who are looking to recruit under cost caps and seek to increase player value. The first shots will fall this summer, though not for the type of player Liverpool would like to target.

But in the coming seasons, the landscape may have shifted to where Saudi Arabia is a place that offers financial and competitive interest to both young players and top players, something that would also impact Europe’s biggest clubs.