Chelsea face dressing room revolt over HUGE wage cuts

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 20 Apr 2023 09:03 BST
• 3 min read

Chelsea face a likely dressing room revolt over wage cuts in the summer, according to reports.

The Stamford Bridge side have spent lavishly over the course of the last two transfer windows, with a record spend of over £600 million taking place.

Such lavish spending, though, has not brought the anticipated outcome. Instead of a top-four challenge, Chelsea find themselves in the lower half of the Premier League table and were dumped out of the Champions League on Tuesday following a pair of 2-0 defeats to Real Madrid.

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The Blues will not be returning to European football’s biggest stage next season, and that fact will prompt a round of pay cuts, according to The Sun.

Manchester United’s players suffered similarly last season – much to the annoyance of Cristiano Ronaldo – but while the cuts at Old Trafford applied to every player, at Chelsea that is not the case and the consequence of this promises to be “huge dressing room unrest”, the report states.

Chelsea stars face pay cuts of up to 30% over their failure to reach the Champions League.

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Reece James is one of the examples given. Having signed a six-year deal in September worth £200,000 per week, he faces that being cut by £60,000 per week next season. Linked with a move away from the club in the summer, Chelsea now face a greater battle to keep one of their brightest prospects.

It is stated that even €121 million January signing Enzo Fernandez will see his pay slashed.

Those to escape the wage cuts are those players who have been at the club over a long period and have not signed new contracts under the Todd Boehly regime: Kai Havertz, Mateo Kovacic, Mason Mount, Edouard Mendy, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech, for example.

Chelsea players angry over wage cuts

An unnamed source quoted by the Sun states: “You can imagine how that’s going down.

"Some of those players are going to take big hits in the pocket while the bloke playing alongside him isn’t.

“It’s hardly the best recipe for maintaining a dressing room that is already feeling the strain of results and so many managerial changes.

“Look at some of the faces on those Chelsea players during the game on Tuesday. They looked angry. You can see why.”

FootballTransfers revealed on Wednesday that Chelsea do not see any of their players as untransferable after a nightmare season that still has seven games left to run.