The revelation of Todd Boehly's £200 million dream forces him to face the harsh reality.
Todd Boehly, a co-owner of Chelsea, might not receive what he wants in the summer transfer window.
Under co-owner Todd Boehly, Chelsea is in for a crucial summer. After spending heavily on transfers in the previous two transfer windows, they have seen their financial woes worsen and have a bloated squad for their next head coach. Although Graham Potter has been temporarily replaced by Frank Lampard, the team will still undergo changes over the coming months.
According to The London Evening Standard, Chelsea is preparing to liquidate their roster in order to reduce their pay costs and provide their next manager a smaller pool of players from whom to choose. According to reports, Boehly is seeking to recover some £200 million in sales this summer, which would go a long way toward offsetting the enormous £ 600 million+ expenditure already made in the previous two windows and helping if additions are expected to continue under an incoming leader.
Fringe and out-of-favor players like Romelu Lukaku, Cesar Azpilicueta, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are anticipated to be among those being cut, while academy products like Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher would have the highest market value if they were to be sold.
Boehly will be keen to offload stars with big pay and a lesser market value than he would like for the first time since taking over, as his rivals have discovered in hard years that it is difficult to sell undesired players for sums that may reach £200m.
Following his high-profile transfer from Inter Milan, Lukaku found himself on the outside of the Chelsea squad at the end of the previous campaign. However, the Blues were unable to recoup their £97.5 million transfer cost, so they loaned him back to Inter Milan.
Boehly might see a similar problem this summer as competitors will use Chelsea's need to sell players as leverage in negotiations. Due to their high wage demands and asking prices, some of the Blues' stars might not attract many bidders, prompting Boehly to lower his evaluations and possibly consider paying some players off for the duration of their contracts.
Arsenal's sporting director Edu acknowledged that the Gunners had to forsake the extra funds in order to release stars like Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil from their roster. Regarding his attitude of offloading players who are judged surplus to requirements, Edu previously told The Athletic, "Try to avoid one more year with the problem inside, in the dressing room, expensive, not performing."
"Clean, remove it. Even if you have to pay, I'm sorry. It is best to depart. Because he occasionally blocks someone else too. When I go to the board and say, "Sometimes it's better to pay a player to leave than maintain them," I know it hurts and that it's weird.
However, I see it as an investment. It's pricey, people may occasionally say. 'No, it's an investment,' I reply. But if you sell, someone will pay? Guys, don't do it. If a player is over 26, 27, and isn't performing, there is no possibility.
