Big money, long contracts: Will Chelsea’s plan to disrupt transfer market pay off?

The new owners have spent more than £500m (€563.8m) on 16 signings but need to win games while building a long-term strategy

STATEMENT SIGNING: Snatching Mykhailo Mudryk from under the noses of Arsenal was a huge coup for Chelsea. Picture: Martin Rickett/PA 

The same question is posed every time a player joins: How on earth are Chelsea making this work? The spending is so dizzying it is no wonder that heads are spinning. Surely, the sceptics say, there will come a point when enough is enough; when Chelsea’s owners, who have spent more than £500m (€563.8m) on 16 signings, feel the squeeze of financial fair play rules and are forced to exercise some restraint in the transfer market.

And yet, in the wake of Chelsea breaking the British transfer record by signing Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for £106.8m (€122.6m) late on deadline day, there is no sign the fun is about to stop. Speak to people who know the club and they will say that Roman Abramovich’s successors are hardly reaching down the back of the sofa for loose change. The money is there and, judging by how many eight-year deals Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital are handing out, so is the will to break from convention.