20/04/2025 07:00
Chelsea are continuing to spend heavily in the transfer market despite seeing little improvement on the pitch since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took over the club.
The Times reported on 11 April that 22 Holdco Ltd – the London giants' parent company – has lost more than £1billion over the past two seasons.
22 Holdco also owns French club Strasbourg, but the majority of the spending has been at Chelsea.
Enzo Maresca's side currently sit seventh in the Premier League table, with the top five clubs qualifying for the Champions League.
Finance expert Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider Chelsea's owners could agree a big-money player sale to Saudi Arabia if they no longer want to fund the club.
The Premier League side's latest accounts for 2023-24 revealed their overall revenue fell from £513million to £469million last season, while their underlying losses dropped from £249million to £214million.
Chelsea sold their women's team to BlueCo last summer for around £200million, helping them turn their previous £90million loss for 2022-23 into a £128million profit for 2023-24.
Chelsea owners bankroll ‘extraordinary’ spending spree
Borson revealed Chelsea's spending has been "extraordinary" since BlueCo took over at Stamford Bridge, with around £1.5billion spent on new signings.
He told Football Insider: "If they continue to put money in as equity, they can’t raise any more debt, more or less.
"They already have lines of debt that are quite expensive. They are not paying interest on those at the moment because what’s happening is that the debt is rolled up into the principal and they’ll pay it off in the future.
"It’s not a particular cash burden for them year on year, but of course, the costs of the clubs that they have within the group are spending a lot of cash, and that will continue. They are going to lose another £200million this year.
"Right now, the club is nowhere near profitable and is heavily loss-making. The bottom line is they will continue to lose money.
"It’s not an existential or problematic situation for them to the extent that the owners won’t have the cash to be able to keep putting it in the things that they do. They are a private equity fund with access to substantial capital, so that shouldn’t be an issue.
"Then there’s whether they have the desire to want to put the money in. Again, that seems to be there.
"Then to be honest, if that desire to continue to fund the club isn’t there, there have been rumours this week that they can sell certain players for very big money off to Saudi and other places, so I wouldn’t think that there’s any particular risk.
"But it is interesting to see the challenge that they’ve got because the spending is extraordinary."
Cole Palmer could quit Chelsea after new twist
Former Manchester United chief scout Mick Brown told Football InsiderCole Palmer could leave Chelsea this summer following growing concerns about his role under Maresca.
The England international has registered 14 goals and nine assists in 38 appearances this season, but he has failed to find the back of the net since January.
| Appearances | 37 |
| Goals | 14 |
| Assists | 9 |
Chelsea could still claim silverware this season after reaching the semi-finals of the Conference League, where they will face Swedish side Djurgarden for a place in the final.
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The post Stefan Borson: Chelsea could agree 'big-money' Saudi deal after £1bn reveal appeared first on Football Insider.
