Some players seem to be eyeing other destinations, while the financial figures are really shocking. In general, this is a rather chaotic international break for Chelsea, as they enter this stage after 4 consecutive defeats.
In that series of matches, Chelsea conceded 12 goals, including 3 goals in the most recent defeat to Everton - a team that is not strong in attack. After that, two players Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella made their own future unpredictable.
Fernandez hinted at the possibility of moving to Real Madrid, while Cucurella publicly criticized the club's transfer policy and admitted it would be difficult to refuse if he received an invitation from Barcelona. With their role in a disappointing season, self-assessing at such a high level is controversial.
Fernandez currently owns a contract lasting until 2032 - a typical contract type of Chelsea - but that does not seem to prevent him from putting pressure to leave.
This makes people even more confused about BlueCo's project. It is turning a club that once had a glamorous and classy image into an organization heavily financial.
In the past few days, Chelsea announced a pre-tax loss of up to £262.4 million for the 2024-2025 season - the largest figure in English football history. Previously, they also lost £155 million in the 2022-2023 season, but somehow still complied with the PSR regulations of the Premier League.
The 128.4 million pound profit in the 2023-2024 season, largely from selling the women's team to affiliates, helped them balance their books. However, this makes many people question the fairness of financial regulations, especially when teams like Everton or Nottingham Forest have been deducted points.
At the same time as announcing the large loss, the English Football Association also revealed that The Blues are the team that spent the most on player brokerage fees in the past 12 months, with 65.1 million pounds - far exceeding their opponents. This is also the third consecutive year they lead in this spending.
Under Todd Boehly and Clearlake, Chelsea spent more than 1.5 billion pounds on transfers. They were fined 10.75 million pounds and received a suspended transfer ban due to non-transparent payments from the Roman Abramovich era, and are still facing other penalties.
Even the women's team - sold internally for about 200 million pounds - also reported a loss of 17.1 million pounds in the past year.
These "financial techniques" have caused much controversy. And the question is whether it's worth it? When spending so heavily, people often expect a strong team.
In fact, Chelsea is only ranked sixth in the Premier League, 22 points behind Arsenal and overwhelmed by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. At the same time, some of their stars publicly talked about the possibility of leaving.
Coach Liam Rosenior has faced much criticism after a 4-match losing streak, and his ability is still a question mark. However, it is also necessary to raise the issue that this may be one of the most difficult and least recognized jobs in modern football.
