Chelsea transfer news: The Blues are set to take a major loss on the price paid for Christian Pulisic in 2019 as Todd Boehly continues to shed the squad of players.
Chelsea, it is fair to say, have been a better selling club in the past seven years than they have been a buying one. Since the horror window of summer 2018, they have managed to sell £794.5million ($1.02bn) worth of players having spent £1.35billion ($1.74bn) in the same period.
It is of little solace to still be that wasteful and come no closer than a third-place finish in a race for the Premier League, but it is the outgoings that have proved more fruitful than those that have arrived. Highlights of Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, Nemanja Matic and Alvaro Morata for high fees despite their relatively bleak club prospects are standouts.
The youth influx and planning has become clearer as the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital regime have continued their work at Stamford Bridge but yet it is 24-year-old duo Kai Havertz and Mason Mount, two players many had seen as being central to the owner's long term plans, that have brought in the most money.
The optics of this are poor when it means selling Mount and Havertz to direct rivals plus Mateo Kovacic to Manchester City but simply moving on those that are seen as having more monetary value than footballing input isn't as foolish as it seems.
However, CIES football observatory doesn't see Chelsea as being ripped off. The site gives Pulisic a £25.6milllion ($32.8m) transfer value with three years left on his contract. With no sign of a renewal coming through his four-year stay in London, the price being offered by Milan would seem to be perfectly fair.
Chelsea were keen to get more than £12million ($15.4m) for him to ensure they recorded a profit on the books due to his amortized cost and will end up with more than that. The larger issue at hand here is that in 2019 they signed a player that Transfermarkt valued at £51million ($65.4m), paid slightly more than that at the time and have only seen his price drop since then.