Chelsea have announced a record financial loss for the 2024-25 season, and they sit top of the table when it comes to forking out commission to their players' agents
Enzo Fernandez with the captain's armband
Enzo Fernandez has revealed that he could leave Chelsea(Image: PA)
View 4 Images
Some players appear to be casting eyes elsewhere and the financial figures are jaw-dropping. All in all, it has been a quiet international break for Chelsea Football Club, who went into the hiatus on the back of four consecutive defeats.
In those four defeats, they conceded 12 goals, three of which came in the most recent reverse to an Everton side that went into the match as the Premier League's 15th-lowest scorers. To their countrymen, Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella then chose to sow further seeds of doubt about their futures.
Fernandez fluttered his eyelashes at Real Madrid while Cucurella criticised the club’s transfer policy and suggested a move to Barcelona would be hard to turn down. Considering their roles in Chelsea’s underwhelming season so far, Fernandez and Cucurella appear to be rating themselves a bit too highly if they think Real and Barca are going to come calling this summer.
Fernandez, by the way, has one of those contracts that have become a Chelsea speciality. It goes on forever. Actually, it is until 2032 but it has not stopped him agitating for a move, it seems.
Which makes you even more mystified by this whole BlueCo project. It is turning a club that has always possessed a lovely bit of glamour and class into some sort of soulless financial institution.
And quite how this financial institution actually works is surely beyond the understanding of your average fan. In the past few days, the club announced the biggest financial loss in British football history, recording a pre-tax deficit of £262.4million for the 2024-25 season (the year ending June 30, 2025).
For the 2022-23 season, they posted a loss of £155m. Yet somehow, Chelsea have complied with the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
Marc Cucurella of Spain attends the presd conference
Marc Cucurella expressed his views on Chelsea's current situation while on international duty(Image: Javier Borrego/Europa Press via Getty Images)
View 4 Images
No doubt they have been helped by the £128.4m profit they posted for 2023-24, a figure boosted by the sale of the Chelsea women's team to one of BlueCo's subsidiary companies for almost £200m.
Remember when Everton and Nottingham Forest were deducted points for PSR breaches? Those decisions look more unjust by the day.
Seriously, does anyone now believe the Premier League's financial regulations - and their enforcement - are fit for purpose? Goodness knows what the Manchester City verdict will be, if it ever arrives.
But back to Chelsea. On the same day that the gargantuan losses were announced, the Football Association published its annual report detailing what clubs spent on agents fees between February 2025 and February 2026. Unlike the Premier League, this is one competition that Chelsea can normally be relied on to run away with.
Chelsea co-owners Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly on a balcony
Chelsea co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali (left) have overseen a huge spend on transfers(Image: Getty Images)
View 4 Images
And sure enough, they spent by far the most on agents' fees in those 12 months, their £65.1m outlay was almost £30m more than the club that spent the second highest amount, Aston Villa. To absolutely no one's surprise, Chelsea spent the most on agents the previous year (£60.4m) and the year before that (£75.1m). Nice hat-trick.
At least this version of Chelsea - the Todd Boehly-Clearlake version that has spent over £1.5billion on transfers - declared the fees. The club was recently fined £10.75m and given a suspended one-year transfer ban after a Premier League investigation into £47.5m of undisclosed payments made during the Roman Abramovich era. They face a Football Association penalty for a similar offence.
Oh, and just for good measure, the women's team they bought from themselves for around £200m made a loss of £17.1m last year. Keep up.
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 30: Todd Boehly the Chelsea owner after the Premier League match between Chelsea and Fulham at Stamford Bridge on August 30, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Crystal Pix/MB Media/Getty Images)
Chelsea's financial results have made headlines(Image: Getty Images)
View 4 Images
Chelsea's financial machinations are mind-boggling. Does it matter? Well, yes. If you are spending £1.5bn on transfers, paying agents £65.1m, and losing £262.4m in a year, you at least expect a powerhouse football team.
Instead, you have a team that is in sixth place in the Premier League, 22 points behind Arsenal, and was humiliated by Paris Saint-Germain in the first knockout round of the Champions League. Oh, and two of its marquee players are openly talking about the prospect of moving to other clubs.
Liam Rosenior has rightly received some flak for the four-match losing run and whether he is up to the job remains to be seen. But you can’t help wondering whether or not that job - aside from the money - is one of the most thankless in football.