Finance expert sends Todd Boehly ‘messy’ FFP warning as Chelsea transfer priority revealed

Kieran Maguire has warned Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali that they must tackle Chelsea’s wage bill this summer. The Blues’ 2022/23 accounts revealed the club recorded £512million in revenue, which is a six per cent more than last season.

However, Chelsea’s wage bill soared almost 20 per cent to £404m – the second largest in the Premier League behind only Manchester City. The west London outfit also registered £249m in day-to-day operating losses, which is almost £100m more than Leicester City (£152m) in second and Aston Villa (£139m) in third.

As for incomings, Chelsea secured £203m in player sales with a net trading profit of £62.9m. It also must be said that the transfer fee for Mason Mount will be on the books for next season, and all signings made from January 2023 agreed to take a salary cut if Champions League qualification wasn’t achieved.

Nevertheless, Maguire has urged Boehly and Eghbali to offload those who are out on loan and still eating into the club’s wage bill. Speaking to Football Insider, the ‘football finance expert’ said: “Chelsea are not in a brilliant position for when the new squad control costs are introduced.

“They have had some exceptional problems in the past couple of seasons, including their failure to qualify for Europe and not having a front-of-shirt sponsor for half of the season. They also have a bloated wage bill with many legacy contracts including the likes of Romelu Lukaku.”

According to Sky Sports, however, Roma will pay between £7m and £8m for Lukaku on loan, depending on performance-related targets. The report states that the Italian outfit have also been covering the striker’s wages this season after he agreed to a salary cut for the remaining three years of his Chelsea deal.

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Sky Sports add that a £38m release clause was pencilled into his contract too. Maguire added: “They are very expensive and are not being recovered while they are out on loan to other clubs. Todd Boehly and Co. have created a lot of this mess and they have to take responsibility – although whether they are prepared to do so is another matter.”

Many believe that Boehly and Eghbali will look to sell several Cobham stars this summer in a bid to raise funds. However, William Gallas has already ruled out the possibility of Reece James and Conor Gallagher leaving West London anytime soon.

Speaking to GamblingZone, the former Blues defender said: “Chelsea won’t sell Reece James, you have to keep players who have come through the academy and you need players with that identity.

“He is the captain, but unfortunately he is often injured – despite this, we should keep him. It’s the same for Connor Gallagher, they both have to stay. I know that there are problems with the finances at the moment, but they have to sell another player to fix this.”