Record transfer of Enzo Fernández to Chelsea 0:42
(CNN) --
By all accounts, Arsenal were in strong competition to sign Ukrainian superstar Mykhailo Mudryk during the January transfer window.
As the current Premier League leaders, the 22-year-old striker had the potential to be a pivotal addition in the title race.
But instead, Mudryk was signed by Arsenal's rival Chelsea.
Now managed by American businessman Todd Boehly, Chelsea have swooped in to sign Mudryk for a transfer fee of $75 million with an additional $35 million expected as a bonus payment, according to Mudryk's former club Shakhtar Donetsk.
The acquisition of Mudryk — as well as the million-dollar $132 million deal for Argentine Enzo Fernández — demonstrated just how manic Chelsea's January transfer window has been, one in which the club has spent more than $350. million, according to Transfermarkt, and that has seen eight players arrive, including a raft of attackers.
In May, the UK government approved the sale of Chelsea to a Boehly-led ownership group in a deal valued at more than $5bn.
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Chelsea was previously owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who put the club up for sale in early March following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying at the time it was "what's best for the club."
In May, the UK government added Abramovich to its sanctions list as part of its efforts to "isolate" Russian President Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine.
Chelsea sack Tuchel after Champions League defeat
Boehly's reign has already seen him ditch manager Thomas Tuchel, who guided Chelsea to their second Champions League title in 2020/21, replacing the German with Graham Potter.
In addition to Chelsea, Boehly has invested in several sports franchises, including interests in the MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers, the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks.
Since joining Chelsea, Boehly is estimated to have spent more than $600m on transfers.
Hardly a day has gone by in January without Chelsea linking up with a host of players.
“I think at least the last month has been quite exciting as someone who has been covering it,” Dan Dormer of the 'London Is Blue Podcast' told CNN Sport.
“It's also been a bit exhausting because it seems like every day we wake up to a new link or a new story,” Dormer added.
The details of the transfer of the Portuguese João Félix to Chelsea
Mudryk during the Premier League match against Liverpool at Anfield. (Credit: Martin Rickett/PA Images/Getty Images)
The English club set a British transfer record with the signing of Enzo Fernández, who just won the World Cup in Qatar with Argentina, from Benfica for £107 million (US$132 million), the Portuguese club announced Tuesday.
Fernandez's fee dwarfs the £100 million ($123 million) Manchester City paid for Jack Grealish and concludes a high-spending transfer window for Chelsea.
Agreements and negotiations
While the players have arrived, Chelsea's results have been inconsistent so far, as evidenced by the club's fans pining for days gone by and chanting, "We've got Super Tommy Tuchel," during their 4-0 thrashing. suffered by his team against Manchester City in the FA Cup at the beginning of January.
But Boehly's splurge on new talent has never wavered.
“We are all in, 100%, every minute of every game.
Our vision as owners is clear: we want the fans to be proud," Boehly said in a statement, released as the Chelsea purchase was completed.
Hi, enzo.
😉 pic.twitter.com/sYtDZ23QQb
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 1, 2023
"Along with our commitment to developing the youth team and acquiring the best talent, our action plan is to invest in the Club for the long term and build on Chelsea's remarkable success story."
In his first full transfer window last summer as the club's interim sporting director, Boehly and Chelsea spent $302.08 million on new signings, according to Transfermarkt.
Chelsea never report how much the club spends on transfers and chose not to comment when offered the opportunity by CNN about the club's recent outlay on new players.
Boehly has done his best to try to make the transition to life with Potter as smooth as possible, bringing in many of the former Brighton manager's coaches and back-room staff to assist him.
Meanwhile, Christopher Vivell joined as Chelsea manager from RB Leipzig in Germany in December.
“He [Boehly] will provide important support to Graham and the ownership group and will play a vital role in moving our overall vision for the club forward,” Boehly told the club's website when Vivell was appointed.
According to Dormer, Chelsea never adequately replaced manager Michael Emenalo, who left the club in 2017.
"If you think about it, with different trainers, it's like each one is a different kid and they requested a different Lego, and they're trying to build a unified project. And that means sometimes not all the pieces fit together," Dormer said. .
The January transfer window is often seen as the worst time to buy players, as clubs don't want to lose valuable assets and possibly have the upper hand in negotiations.
But not that that has deterred the Blues.
In addition to Mudryk, Benoît Badiashile, Noni Madueke, Malo Gusto, Andrey Santos, David Datro Fofana and Fernández signed permanent deals, while Portuguese superstar João Félix joined Atlético Madrid on loan.
English Premier League clubs will not release players for international matches in UK red list countries
Portuguese star João Félix joined the Blues on loan from LaLiga's Atlético Madrid. (Credit: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC/Getty Images)
Prior to Fernández's transfer, Chelsea have bought 15 players this season, spending more than $600 million, according to the CIES Football Observatory.
That's a big outlay, but there's also a long-term strategy at play, with Chelsea targeting young players: 11 of the players signed for transfer fees are 22 or younger.
Dormer says that with older players running out of contracts and some looking past their prime, there was definitely a need to "replenish" the team.
On the last day of the January transfer window, veteran midfielder Jorginho was sold to Arsenal.
“It's almost as if you had an eye exam and the optometrist asks you: 'Better one or better two?'
and help you perfect 20/20 vision for your glasses,” Dormer said.
"This is something where it's been an evolutionary process of trying to figure out who the best players are."
Dormer believes that the Chelsea team now have the necessary strength in depth.
"If Reece James gets injured, Chelsea's right-hand side drops dramatically in terms of total performance," he explained.
“And having similar levels of player to lift the floor over the individual behind their drafted starter and then also having the ability to rotate to keep the whole team healthy, particularly when teams play 40, 50, 60 games a season, plus international matches, plus the lack of free time”.
However, this influx of talent potentially spells trouble for Chelsea.
According to UEFA regulations, a club can only register three new players in its squad for the Champions League round of 16, so four of them (Mudryk, Félix, Badiashile, Madueke, Fofana and Fernández) will not be able to play in the tournament for Chelsea.
Potter reacts during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Crystal Palace. (Credit: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Money money money
Big transfer spending has nearly recovered to pre-pandemic levels this year, with Chelsea leading the way.
According to the Global Transfer Market 2022 report published by FIFA, clubs spent a total of US$6.5bn in 2022, 33.5% more than US$4.86bn in 2021, but still below the levels of US$6.940 million in 2018 and US$7.350 million in 2019
With more than $600 million spent on new players by Chelsea alone, there have been questions about soccer's financial regulations.
Chelsea are following the fair play financial rules of both the Premier League and European soccer governing body UEFA through the write-off process, giving players longer contracts so that the cost of a transfer is spread over the over several years.
In Mudryk's case, the Ukrainian signed an eight-and-a-half-year deal with the Blues, meaning his nearly $110 million transfer fee will cost the club roughly $13 million a year.
Enzo Fernández also signed an eight-and-a-half-year contract at Stamford Bridge, according to the BBC.
Football financial expert Kieran Maguire, who says he found Chelsea's sudden transfer spending "strange" given the usual caution of Clearlake Capital, the investment fund involved in the takeover, explained that the writedown may be positive going forward. immediate, but it has many long-term consequences.
"It's a very high risk strategy because what happens if those players turn out to be flops?" Maguire told CNN Sport.
“Then you commit to paying player salaries for that six, seven or eight year period.
Mudryk shoots against Liverpool. (Credit: Martin Rickett/PA Images/Getty Images)
“Chelsea are normally in the top three, certainly top four, salary commitments from Premier League clubs.
"So finding another club that is willing to take the player out of Chelsea's hands and pay them a level of remuneration that the player is happy with is going to be quite a challenge."
In January, UEFA announced it was amending its financial fair play rules, setting a five-year limit over which a transfer fee can be spread to crack down on the practice of excessive redemption.
However, the change will come into effect during the summer of 2023 and will not apply retroactively, meaning it will not affect Chelsea's current spending spree.
Chelsea's productive youth academy is also helping their bottom line: in recent years, Billy Gilmour, Fikayo Tomori, Marc Guéhi and Tammy Abraham have all contributed considerable fees.
However, such a large influx of players at Chelsea has implications for the club's emerging prospects.
"It doesn't make sense to have an academy system where kids don't have the chance to play at that level," Tony Pulis, former Stoke City manager, told Sky Sports.
The growing disparity between the wealth of top clubs while others struggle financially is also cause for concern.
Fair Game, an organization "committed to the same principles and determined to improve the governance of our national game for the broader interests of football", reiterated its calls for a transfer tax for Premier League clubs, saying that it could raise nearly $200 million that "could help provide a lifeline to clubs below the top flight that continue to struggle with the fallout from the pandemic and the daily challenges of the cost-of-living crisis."
According to Maguire, there is an "arms race in terms of wages as a result of aggressive trade", although he says that the Premier League is more competitive than other European leagues, as evidenced by the clash between Chelsea and Liverpool between the tenth and ninth places on last month.
"Football is a talent industry and the talent is after the money and the big clubs have the money," Maguire said.
“I think it's really about finding a degree of competitive balance so you don't end up like we see in La Liga and some of the other European leagues where it's effectively a procession and that's not good.
The Premier League is successful because it has things right."
Chelsea F.C.