Rival fans continue to look on with envy as Chelsea show they are not planning on slowing up their spending this summer.
The Blues beat the likes of Manchester United to the signing of Liam Delap, who has already opened his account for the club at the Club World Cup.
The transfer business has gone up a notch in the last few days though. Chelsea are now expected to complete deals for Joao Pedro and Jamie Gittens.
With there being more than £100m combined spent on the two players, it is clear that Enzo Maresca is being given the relevant backing to succeed in his second season at the club.
Reports have stated that they are not planning to be finished yet either. Fabrizio Romano hinted Chelsea could sign another attacker this summer.
Chelsea have ‘unlimited’ transfer budget this summer
Despite not yet making any meaningful player sales in this transfer window, there doesn’t appear to be any restrictions over the business the club are currently doing.
Finance expert Adam Williams has told The Chelsea Chronicle that the club are entitled to spend as much as they want this summer, with the PSR loopholes they have already activated helping them out.
He said; “I think the limit of Chelsea’s ambitions depends on little else than how deep the owners’ pockets are at the moment. In effect, if the owners want to spend, they have an unlimited transfer budget.
“The Premier League haven’t been able to close the intra-company deals loophole that saw Chelsea sell the women’s team and the hotels at Stamford Bridge.
“They have got other tangible assets they can use in similar deals, so until that route is exhausted and the loophole closed, Premier League PSR isn’t going to be an issue for them.“
Other top-flight sides are beginning to follow in Chelsea’s footsteps. Aston Villa have now agreed to sell their women’s team after the Blues previously did the same.
Chelsea to learn UEFA punishment ‘this week’
Rules in European football are different to those in the Premier League, and they will not recognise the loopholes Chelsea have activated towards their profits.
However, Williams believes that the Chelsea owners will be content with the fine they are set to pick up, which they will learn the extent of this week.
He said: “It’s different with UEFA’s rules because they don’t recognise the intra-company asset sales. But then again, the punishments appear very, very lax. I think Chelsea’s owners simply see the fine they will get as a cost of doing business.
“The interesting one is going to be how strict UEFA are with the squad cost control rule that limits clubs to spending 70 per cent of revenue plus profit on profit in player sales on wages, transfers and agents’ fees. For 2024, the cap was 80 per cent.
“The different thing about that is that it is a calendar-year test rather than season-to-season. I believe we’re going to find out about the fine and the financial plan that UEFA will impose on them this week. This is in addition to the other element of the UEFA rules that limit losses to about £75m over three years.
“If it is just another small fine like UEFA have levelled at clubs in the past, then I don’t see what the point in UEFA PSR is. You may as well do away with it altogether.“
Chelsea returned to the Champions League at the first time of asking for Maresca, who also delivered a trophy in the form of the Conference League in his first 12 months at the club.
This has certainly played a factor in them being able to attract their top transfer targets, and could have set them up for a seriously busy summer window.
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