Few clubs in world football can claim to have spent as much money as Chelsea over the last 10 or 15 years....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
After its former owner, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, bought the club in 2003, it became a major force in European football, thanks mainly to the billions invested in the playing squad.
This has paid off, as they have been one of the most successful teams in Europe for the past two decades.
In the summer of 2022, they spent big, buying for almost £250 million. In fact, three of their 11 most expensive signings were made during that period.
Here are their biggest deals to date, in terms of their value in pounds at the time of signing.
What are their most expensive signings to date?
=10. Raheem Sterling – £47.5 million (from Man City, 2022)
Despite winning the Champions League in 2021, the following season showed that Chelsea lacked stars in attack.
This became one of the key targets during the 2022 summer transfer season, as new owner Todd Boehly was keen to spend money on some top strikers.
The first summer signing was Raheem Sterling, who was one of Manchester City’s key players during the golden era under Pep Guardiola.
=10. Timo Werner – £47.5 million (from RB Leipzig, 2020)
The German signed for RB Leipzig in the summer of 2020 after an outstanding season in which he scored 34 goals in 42 games in all competitions.
In his debut season at Chelsea, he scored less than half as many goals.
In his second season at Chelsea he was even worse, scoring just four goals in the Premier League, and in the summer he was sent back to Leipzig for just over half the amount he was bought for.
9. Jorginho – £50m (from Napoli, 2018)
Jorginho joined Chelsea in 2018, following Maurizio Sarri from Napoli.
The Brazilian-born Italian international was a focal point of Sarri’s hugely successful Napoli team, where he was their main deep-lying striker.
Jorginho has weathered the storms of his Chelsea career and regained his place in the team after being moved to a reserve role.
In fact, he is the player most noticed when he is not there, although his excellent performance from the penalty spot sets him apart from many players in the deep midfield role.
His performances reached Ballon d’Or quality in 2021 and he was named UEFA Player of the Year after helping Chelsea to the Champions League title and Italy to the European title.
8. Fernando Torres – £50 million (from Liverpool, 2011)
Fernando Torres was a great success at Liverpool, scoring 69 goals in three and a half seasons, but he never had the same success at Chelsea.
A warning sign should be his injury problems and the fact that Torres scored 18 league goals in 1,717 minutes in the 2009/10 season, but that his goal tally dropped in 2010/11.
Chelsea then paid a record English sum for his services, and although he scored a famous goal at the Camp Nou, he failed to live up to expectations.
It took him almost 1,000 minutes to score his first goal for Chelsea, and while 45 goals and 35 assists in 175 games isn’t bad (a goal every 2.2 games or so), he simply wasn’t as good as the club had hoped he would be.
7. Christian Pulisic – £57 million (from Dortmund, 2019)
Christian Pulisic hasn’t lived up to expectations as a Chelsea player since he was moved for big money from Borussia Dortmund.
His speed, quickness on the ball and dribbling ability have generally not led to success on the pitch.
He has been inconsistent, but despite constant transfer rumours, he remains at the club.
6. Alvaro Morata – £60m (from Real Madrid, 2017)
Alvaro Morata never became a permanent member of Real Madrid, but the form he showed during his loan spell at Juventus and in his few appearances for Los Blancos suggested he was a talismanic figure with professional instincts in midfield.
This forced Abramovich’s hand, even though Antonio Conte had publicly said he wanted Romelu Lukaku, and Morata was signed. It was such a good start for the club’s (then record) signing that he scored a goal and assisted once, and even scored a draw, almost inspiring a comeback from the bench against Burnley in his Premier League debut.
In his first season he scored 15 goals and six assists in 30 games in all competitions, but a poor finish and just five Premier League goals in his second season saw him move to Atletico Madrid for £16 million in 2018/19, signing for just over £30 million, as agreed.
5. Marc Cucurella – £62m (from Brighton, 2022)
Chelsea really invested money in their first summer under Boehly, spending £62 million on Brighton winger Marc Cucurella, beating interest from Man City and Barcelona.
The deal was complicated by premature claims by sources that the transfer had been completed, prompting Brighton to issue a statement refuting the speculation.
But in the end a deal was agreed for £55 million and a further £7 million, with Blues youngster Levi Colwill loaned to Brighton, making Cucurella the most expensive wing-back of all time.
4. Wesley Fofana – £70m (from Leicester, 2022)
After chasing Wesley Fofana for most of the summer, Thomas Tuchel finally got his man on the penultimate day of the 2022 summer transfer window. The German had to spend big for the young Frenchman, but Fofana became one of the most expensive centre-backs in the history of the game thanks to this move.
Fofana signed a seven-year contract with the Blues, underlining his desire to play for the club, which was in no doubt when Leicester forced Leicester to allow his transfer.
3. Kepa Arrizabalaga – £71 million (from Athletic Bilbao, 2018)
Due to their policy of only allowing players from the Basque Country to play, it is extremely expensive to recall players from Athletic Bilbao, as Chelsea experienced in the case of Kepa Arrizabalaga.
A world record compensation was agreed for the goalkeeper because the club needed a replacement for Thibaut Courtois, who moved to Real Madrid, but it did not work out as planned.
Under Sarri, Kepa was mediocre at best; not awful, he looked promising, but certainly not world class. In the 2019/20 season, however, it was a different story.
He had the lowest save percentage of any goalkeeper in the Premier League, conceding 47 goals and making just 1.7 saves per 90 minutes, which is the least of any goalkeeper with more than one appearance in the Premier League.
He subsequently lost his place in the squad and was an expensive reserve player for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons.
2. Kai Havertz – £72m (from Leverkusen, 2020)
Although it wasn’t considered any kind of gamble when Chelsea made Kai Havertz their most expensive signing at the time, the amount for the 21-year-old seemed excessively high.
Like Werner, Havertz needed some time to establish himself at Stamford Bridge.
He did well in the latter part of his first season and it doesn’t really matter how he does later in his career with the Blues, he’s already made history.
He scored the only goal of the game in the 2021 Champions League final against Manchester City and brought the trophy back to London, so Chelsea will regard the deal as money well spent.
1. Romelu Lukaku – £97.7m (from Inter, 2021)
While on paper it may have seemed strange that Chelsea would spend so much money on a player they once had as a youngster, Romelu Lukaku’s signing in the summer of 2021 was undoubtedly a club move.
After dominating Italian football during his two seasons with Inter, scoring 64 goals in 95 games and helping the club win its first Serie A title in ten years, Lukaku returned to English football as one of the best strikers in world football and with one more thing to prove.
In his second debut, he needed just 15 minutes to find the net for Arsenal.
As the season progressed, Lukaku’s performances declined disastrously and he scored just eight goals in the Premier League before returning to Inter after a season on loan.
