- 34 minutes ago
Crisis-hit Chelsea suffer another transfer BLOW and could lose £28m transfer income
Chelsea could suffer a further financial blow this summer by missing out on £28 MILLION of transfer income should Lewis Hall’s permanent move to Newcastle fall through.
The Magpies paid an initial £4m to take the 19-year-old on a season-long loan deal last summer with a further £24m owed on completion of a permanent transfer.
Newcastle pushed paying for Hall into next season amid concerns that they were close to the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules limits.
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Chelsea, too, were content to wait for the income next season and Hall’s sale would represent 100 percent profit as he was developed as a homegrown player.
However it has now emerged that the permanent deal will only go ahead should certain conditions be met.
And Newcastle manager Eddie Howe disclosed on Friday that as of now those conditions have not been fulfilled.
“I don’t think that has quite happened yet, but hopefully it will do very soon,” he said.
Will Newcastle back out of Hall deal?
But Howe’s usage of Hall up to now would suggest that he has little intention of using him in the first team any time soon.
Left back Hall has only played five percent of the minutes available to him in the Premier League this season, barely 104 minutes in total, and was taken off at half time of his only two starts for Newcastle.
He has played only 11 times in all competitions and, even when the side’s resources were stretched by a winter injury crisis, he was only afforded a few minutes at a time at the end of matches.
There now exists a perception that Newcastle could avoid using Hall any further in order to ensure they do not have to comply with the terms of a permanent deal and, instead, send Hall back to Stamford Bridge.
Given Hall’s relative lack of experience, and the lack of first-team readiness he’s shown in his Newcastle days so far, Howe and his recruitment team might feel that their £24m might be better spent elsewhere. The Telegraph, however, is reporting that Newcastle club sources deny this theory.
Chelsea desperately need the cash
Chelsea stand next to no chance of getting that much for Hall in the open market and could be left holding the baby this summer if Newcastle cancel the deal.
And the Todd Boehly-led outfit desperately need the cash.
It’s been estimated that Chelsea will need to sell at least £100m worth of talent before the end of June in order to avoid financial fair play and profit and sustainability rules breaches.
Accounts for Chelsea’s parent company, BlueCo 22, this week showed that Chelsea lost £90.1m in the period covering March 2, 2022 to June 30, 2023.
Clubs are permitted to lose up to £105 million over a three-year period under current financial rules.
Although any potential income on Hall would not have counted towards this season’s totals, given his signing wouldn’t be confirmed until July, it is still a significant blow for Mauricio Pochettino.
Pressure grows on Poch and ownership
The manager will have been hoping to put that money towards next summer’s signings with Chelsea already right on the limit given their recent spending.
Players like Mykhailo Mudryk, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and more have been recruited at a cost of £1bn but Chelsea find themselves adrift of the Champions League places in the Premier League.
It’s not the news Chelsea wanted to hear as the pressure grows on Pochettino and fan discontent with the ownership group gets louder.
