Chelsea’s surprising decision on two transfers this summer shows the truth about their finances | OneFootball

Simon Johnson’s piece for the Athletic today has some very interesting claims about Chelsea’s two major transfers of the summer so far.

Marc Guiu came in from Barcelona and was announced yesterday, while Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has been signed from Leicester, without having been announced yet. According to Johnson however, both deals were registered before the 1st of July, meaning they are on the 2023-2024 accounts.

There had been talk for months about whether the Blues needed to sell before they bought, and the staggering amount of money spent by this ownership over the last 4 windows looked like it might finally catch up with them. But reports from David Ornstein actually held that there were no issues, thanks to some alchemy from the Blues bookkeepers, who conjured up clever tricks like selling a car park from one company to another.

What this means for Chelsea financial situation

It’s an interesting move from the Blues, and as Johnson writes, it tells you a lot about their PSR situation. If they were worried about overspending they would have delayed both deals into July, putting them on the 2024-2025 books.

PSR is done on a rolling three year period. So by putting them in last year’s accounts rather than this year’s the Blues ensure that there’s just two seasons to go before that outlay is digested. That means they must have (or at least think they have) the space on the books to do that. Whatever financial magic the ownership did behind the scenes clearly created enough room to dump these losses into last season, freeing us up for further moves this month and beyond.

All the talk of PSR issues were nonsense then, and the 30th of June deadline actually became the opposite – a date which we wanted to complete purchases before, not just sales.