Chelsea want to LOWER wage bill and REDUCE contracts

Stuart Telford

• 22 Feb 2023 15:39 GMT
• 3 min read

Chelsea may have spent more than €600 million on player transfers since Todd Boehly became owner, but the American billionaire plans to tighten the purse strings going forward.

The Blues have been all at sea since Boehly replaced Roman Abramovich as owner last May, spending lavishly on players while results have failed to follow.

Marc Cucurella became the most expensive left-back ever last summer with his £62 million move from Brighton; Enzo Fernandes became the costliest British transfer of all time in January when Chelsea met Benfica's €120m release clause.

READ: Five things Graham Potter must do to save Chelsea job

And yet the Blues are 10th under Graham Potter this season, statistically as close to the relegation places as they are the Champions League spots.

While bumper contracts have been handed out under Boehly - Raheem Sterling, a £47.5m arrival from Manchester City last July, earns a team-high £16.9m a year - that is set to end, with Mason Mount's contract negotiations shedding some light on the situation.

Mount is out of contract in the summer of 2024, and while fellow academy graduate Reece James became the club's highest paid defender ever on £13m a year, Boehly and Co. want to structure Mount's contract differently - and indeed any other deal going forward.

READ: Liverpool handed major boost as Mount's contract talks are halted by Chelsea

Mount-ing issues

"Even if a player has great affection for a club [as Mount does], he is entitled to negotiate the best possible terms," report the Athletic's Simon Johnson and Liam Twomey.

"[But] achieving that at a time when Chelsea's new owners are determined to lower the wage bill and want players to agree to incentivised contracts, where their salary increases if they achieve certain targets like qualifying for the Champions League, is a further complication."

This comes at a time when Chelsea are looking to stay within the bounds of Financial Fair Play legislation. They have handed out seven- and eight-year contracts to some of their new arrivals, so their transfer fees are recorded in increments over that period.

Boehly has had a shot-gun approach to his first two transfer windows, but now it is time to settle the squad down whilst balancing the books, and a number of players - from Hakim Ziyech to Christian Pulisic - are reportedly for sale.

Mount status as academy graduate also makes his sale increasingly likely. Rated at €73.1m by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm, whatever fee Chelsea would achieve would count as pure profit.

He looks bound for the exit, as do many more.