Chelsea can field two incredible XIs after spending £357m this summer – with Johnson next

Chelsea’s exorbitant spending has come under huge scrutiny as Todd Boehly’s spending approaches £1billion.

The Blues have broken the British transfer record TWICE in 2023 as there appears to be no limit to the cash being thrown around.

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Moises Caicedo moved to Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea paying Brighton £115million.

He signed an eight-year contract too as he snubbed Liverpool to move to London.

Romeo Lavia has also completed a switch to west London, again opting to join them instead of an Anfield move.

Twice Chelsea have managed to hijack deals from under Liverpool’s noses, much to their frustration.

On the Blues’ transfer business, Jurgen Klopp said: “That’s what each Chelsea manager wants and usually they get it.”

There has been huge change at Stamford Bridge this summer with another permanent manager coming in, Mauricio Pochettino, who is already Boehly’s third.

Much was made of the hugely bloated squad last season that bizarrely saw them need to create extra space in the changing room to accommodate everyone.

The first order of business was to trim that down and 11 senior players have left the club.

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Some on free transfers like N’Golo Kante and Cesar Azpilicueta, while Mason Mount, Kai Havertz and Mateo Kovacic were scooped up by top six rivals.

However, eight players have signed so far and the exits and arrivals are unlikely to stop there too with more players likely to be sold in order to make room for more of Pochettino’s signings.

talkSPORT understands Nottingham Forest forward Brennan Johnson is being eyed up as an alternative to Michael Olise following his new Crystal Palace deal.

Despite all that change, Chelsea can still field two completely different starting XIs that would be pretty competitive.

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Question marks have been raised about just how Chelsea can afford to spend so much on players, while also remaining within Financial Fair Play rules.

The club have been operating in a way like no other football team on the planet, reportedly leading to some complaints from their Premier League rivals.

The Blues have exploited a loophole that allowed the cost of the transfer to be spread over the length of the contract, handing out eight year deals to a number of signings.

They have also raised money through player sales, the sales of Mount, Havertz and Kovacic netted the club more than £100m alone in profit.

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Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has outlined how that approach under Boehly is helping the Blues to stay within the laws of the game, albeit with a huge loophole.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Jordan explained: “Here’s what’s happening with their transfers. I think they’ll struggle to do it in a longer game, until they start getting some achievements on the pitch, but here’s where they really are.

“They’ve spent £800m on players, they’ve spent £600m last year and capitalised that over eight years because all of those players were on eight-year contracts, so all of a sudden that £600m spend is averaging at £75m per year because you’re dividing £600m by eight.

“He’s now had that change because the football fraternity has said ‘you can’t do that over eight years’, so they’ve rolled it back to five years.

“This year’s spend will be £300m, or round about that, and that’ll be reducing to £60m per year – so he’s now losing £75m each year for last year’s spend, plus £60m this year, but he’s gone and sold £250m worth of players in three transfer windows and all of those players have deduced an outcome that is profitable to Chelsea.

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“He sold Kai Havertz for £60-odd-m after he bought him for £60m, but on his balance sheet at the time he sold Havertz he was carrying him at £25m so he sold him at £60m and booked a £35m profit.

“He sold Mason Mount who is an academy player for £60m, so he’s booked a £60m profit, so over the three windows he’s booked somewhere in the region of £200m worth of transfer gains on his balance sheet and he’s reducing it by £135m every year, so he’s £65m in credit right now on his balance sheet in terms of transfers. That’s how he’s doing it.

“Now eventually, if Chelsea don’t pull up revenue and start to get back in the Champions League or generate other revenue streams, this is going to catch up with them sooner rather than later.

“But right now £800m worth of spend equates to £135m a year worth of transfer losses, then you’ve got £200m worth of transfer gains on Havertz, Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and on and on we go.”

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