It’s safe to say Chelsea are having a really tough time in the last couple of weeks, and there seems to be no end to the off-pitch conveyor belt of bad news.
It has now been revealed Chelsea owe roughly £171m in fees to other clubs for transfers, with £71m of this still needing to go towards record-signing Romelu Lukaku.
With the way many clubs operate, most transfer fees are split up over a longer duration (a players contract when they sign) rather than paid straight up front in order to better balance the books. This practice is known as player amortisation.
As per The Sun, Lukaku’s £100m move from Serie A champions Inter to return to Chelsea was split into five £19m instalments, but when Inter also made a forward-funding arrangement with a third party it allowed them to squeeze more from the deal straight away than they would have otherwise been able to do so.
However, despite his price tag, Lukaku has been disappointing by and large since returning to Chelsea. His five Premier League goals are not befitting of a player who was meant to fire Chelsea into a genuine title charge this season. In recent weeks Lukaku has even been dropped in favour of Kai Havertz, who seems to fit the Chelsea system more than the ex-Manchester United striker.
In Chelsea’s case, their player amortisation costs currently tot up to about £171m in total, although the club were also in line to receive £167m from the proceeds of their own sales.
Chelsea are currently operating on a strict licence from the UK government following sanctions imposed on owner Roman Abramovich which means the club can only participate in matches and pay its staff. It cannot currently partake in any transfer activity or contract negotiations and cannot operate commercially.