Todd Boehly’s approach to the transfer market has been pure chaos, with their spending dwarfing their rivals.
The new Chelsea owner has seemingly thrown endless millions around since he replaced Roman Abramovich in the summer.
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Scattergun seems the appropriate word to sum up the vast spending for Thomas Tuchel and then Graham Potter.
Their latest addition was Mykhailo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk, stolen from under the noses of Arsenal in a deal worth a staggering £88million.
That took Boehly’s total spending to over £400m, and he’s only been the owner since July 2022.
Question marks have been raised about how Chelsea can spend such vast sums and still be compliant with Financial Fair Play rules.
It seems that they are able to do this by giving players long contracts, like the possible eight-and-a-half year deal given to Mudryk, as a way to spread out the payments.
Many of those players will be on display in an important Premier League clash against Liverpool on Saturday at 12:30pm – which will be exclusively live on talkSPORT.
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This is a ninth vs tenth place clash – with both teams struggling for form this season and facing difficulties getting into that all-important top four.
It seems particularly poignant that Chelsea come up against Liverpool after yet more vast spending.
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has continually driven home at how he is restricted in what he can spend in the market.
In fact, Chelsea’s spending since Boehly signed is fast approaching the same amount Liverpool have spent in the last 10 transfer windows, dating back to July 2018.
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The Blues have spent just over £430m, while the Reds has spent around £510m – one more signing this month could take them over that.
Klopp said in a press conference in January: “I am here seven years and it is every window, pretty much the same – we talk about these things as though money didn’t play a role. It is never like this.
“We sign an outstanding player like Cody Gakpo and the next player you can read [about]. We cannot play like Monopoly. Of course we cannot just spend and never could.
“It is a big part of my philosophy, working full of faith and trust with the players we have and not constantly telling them we need another player in the position. With Cody the quality he has, the timing and if we wait until the summer he will be more expensive, it makes sense.
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“It is clear that you need real quality in all positions and two teams with the same level that you can rotate and that is what we can prepare. Now that people are surprised when we say we cannot start splashing the cash, that should be really clear.
“If there is something we can do and that means right player and financial situation, we will do it.”
Should Chelsea beat Liverpool on Saturday then the topic of transfer spending is likely to be brought up again.
Chelsea transfers under Boehly
Todd Boehly spending
Raheem Sterling – £50m
Kalidou Koulibaly – £34m
Marc Cucurella – £62m
Wesley Fofana – £70m
Carney Chukwuemeka – £20m
Gabriel Slonina – £12m
Cesare Casadei – £12.6m plus £4.2m in add-ons
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – £10.6m
Denis Zakaria – £2.6m loan fee (option to buy for £30m)
Benoit Badiashile – £33.7m
Andrey Santos – £11m
David Datro Fofana – £10m
Joao Felix – £9.7m loan fee
Mykhailo Mudryk – £88m
Total: £430.4m
Liverpool transfers since July 2018
Naby Keita – £52.75
Fabinho – £43.7m
Xherdan Shaqiri – £13.75
Alisson Becker – £65m
Sepp van den Berg – £4.4m
Harvey Elliott – £4.3m
Takumi Minamino – £7.25m
Kostas Tsimikas – £11.75m
Thiago – £27.4m
Diogo Jota – £45m
Marcelo Pitaluga – £1.8m
Ben Davies – £1.6m
Kaide Gordon – £3.4m
Ibrahima Konate – £36m
Luis Diaz – £50m
Darwin Nunez – £85m
Calvin Ramsay – £6.5m
Fabio Carvalho – £7.7m
Ben Doak – £600,000
Arthur Melo – Loan
Cody Gakpo – £44m
Total – £511.9m
