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A typical football team might need several transfer windows to refresh its squad. But Chelsea under Todd Boehly was different: each summer was a massive overhaul on the scale of a financial market, where players came and went at breakneck speed, and the squad list was as long as an almanac.
The summer of 2025 will see another large-scale "cleanup" – and this time, the figure of over 170 million euros is just the beginning.
Cut to survive, sell to stay alive.
Enzo Maresca hadn't even played a single match yet when he was forced to solve a thorny problem: how to coach a squad of over 40 players? The answer was simple: impossible. Chelsea were forced to sell, and they sold with the speed and decisiveness of a venture capital fund.
João Félix, Noni Madueke, Kepa, Petrovic, Bashir Humphreys, Mathis Amougou… have all left, bringing Chelsea nearly €175 million – largely from players once touted as the club's "future." But at Stamford Bridge now, "future" is a very changeable concept – a new manager and a few million-pound signings are enough to wipe out an entire generation.
Since Boehly took over, Chelsea has spent over €1.6 billion on more than 50 players. And to avoid violating Financial Fair Play regulations, they have no choice but to treat players like commodities; those no longer in their plans are immediately put up for sale. In a way, Stamford Bridge resembles a logistics company: constantly importing and exporting, a continuous flow of players.
The madness reached its peak when Chelsea entered the summer of 2025 with... 17 forwards on their registration list. Enzo Maresca understood that to build a decent team, the first thing to do was to reduce the number of players.
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Raheem Sterling is about to pack his bags and leave Chelsea. |
Raheem Sterling, Armando Broja, David Datro Fofana, Deivid Washington: all are out of the plans and are just waiting for their departure. Nicolas Jackson, once expected to be the "new number 9," has lost his place after a series of inconsistent performances and two red cards. Christopher Nkunku – if anyone asks – is also "open to negotiations."
Marc Guiu, 19, once a trusted player, has now been loaned to Sunderland. Meanwhile, expensive signings like Estevão, João Pedro, and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens have been automatically retained, despite not having played a single minute in the Premier League. Typical Chelsea logic: newcomers always get priority.
Excess and surplus
It's not just the attack that's causing problems; Chelsea's defense is also facing an "overload of players." Disasi, Badiashile, Chilwell, and Caleb Wiley are all on the list of players to be offloaded. Meanwhile, young players like Mamadou Sarr and Anselmino may have to leave the club on loan to gain experience – because even the bench is already overcrowded.
The midfield also hasn't escaped Maresca's clutches. Ugochukwu, Dewsbury-Hall, and Chukwuemeka (despite playing quite well at Dortmund) could all be leaving. They're not lacking in talent, it's just... there's no more room for them. With a team that recruits almost constantly throughout the year, no one can afford to be complacent.
It's said that Enzo Maresca was given complete freedom to build Chelsea as he wished. But to "build," he had to "clean up"—and ruthlessly at that. Almost all of last season's personnel plans were wiped out. The signings that were once highly anticipated quietly left as if they had never arrived.
Under Boehly, Chelsea abandoned the concept of stability. Instead, they adopted a philosophy of "flexible investment": buy quickly, sell quickly, cut losses, and reinvest profits. But football isn't just a balance sheet. A team needs time to stabilize, and a manager needs time to define their philosophy. If they continue to be caught in this cycle of buying, selling, liquidating, and replacing players, when will Chelsea ever rediscover themselves?
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It's unclear how Mudryk will fare at Chelsea. |
Among the remaining transfer targets, Mudryk's case is an "unsolvable problem." Bought for nearly €100 million, with lackluster performance and sky-high wages – and nobody wants to buy him. Keeping him would be wasteful, selling him wouldn't fetch a good price. Mudryk is currently a symbol of a Chelsea team caught between financial ambitions and the realities of football.
Undeniably, Chelsea are doing very well selling players – a skill that used to be a persistent weakness. But if the team is reduced to a place for quarterly "personnel restructuring," where the dressing room becomes an Excel spreadsheet, how much of football – the art of emotion – will be left?
Enzo Maresca is trying to clean up the mess left by his predecessor. But he needs more than just clean-up deals. He needs time, trust, and most importantly: a consistent plan. Because if he keeps "replacing" players every season, Stamford Bridge will forever remain an unfinished construction site – with no end in sight.
Source: https://znews.vn/chelsea-qua-ky-la-post1573705.html
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