Chelsea have been a club undergoing immense change, that much is without doubt. Since 2022 and the Clearlake Capital Todd Boehly ownership, almost everything about the place is different.
On the men's team, specifically, there is absolutely no escaping this. A commitment to transfers which could end up costing more than £1.5billion has been central to this. As football.london revealed last week, over £200million worth of those players are yet to actually feature for the club, casting doubts over just where the priorities for the new ownership are.
Despite this massive and unprecedented level of spending, Chelsea have managed to remain compliant with the Premier League's financial rules. A good amount as to why is exploiting accounting loopholes with long contracts early on and then the sales of hotel buildings, essentially to themselves, in 2023.
Whether or not this continues to be a sustainable method is not yet clear, although many have their doubts and would suggest that it is already proving problematic due to the extent to which the club have had to go to keep themselves away from a punishment. The main avenue Chelsea have gone down to raise revenue is player sales.
As part of Clearlake-Boehly's player-trading model involving 'flipping' transfers for profit, Chelsea have raised over £500million in the last three years. It is almost £200million more than the previous three years under the Roman Abramovich regime - which was propped up by the exit for Eden Hazard to Real Madrid in 2019.
Generating funds from the market was one of the biggest successes of former director and negotiator-in-chief Marina Granovskaia. Her ability to draw in large fees both for academy players and ageing or out-of-form stars was widely celebrated.
It has led to Chelsea selling on a host of talent in the past five years, though. Over both ownerships, football.london takes a look at the XI you could form of players to have left Chelsea in recent times.
Starting in goal and this is one area Chelsea haven't managed to solve since letting Edouard Mendy leave in 2023. He was sold to Saudi Arabia and Chelsea have ended up with two No.2s rather than a defined first-choice. Neither of Robert Sanchez or Filip Jorgensen currently look good enough, whilst Kepa Arrizabalaga will leave this summer.
Mendy's form had been dipping since the peak of winning the Champions League in 2021. He made uncharacteristic errors at the end of the 2021/22 season and followed that up during the chaos of 2022/23. He was not favoured for his ability to play with his feet and Chelsea collected £15million for his services, although that could yet rise in the future.
It is the two full-backs who will hurt the most. Tino Livramento was let go in 2021 under Abramovich. He left for just £5million after winning Chelsea's academy player of the year award to join Southampton. From there he responded brilliantly to a damaging early injury and was picked up by Newcastle United for £32million and that could rise to £40million.
He has now won a major trophy in the northeast and is fighting to play in the Champions League again with Eddie Howe. Able to play both sides, Livramento saw his pathway blocked off by Reece James and has forged an extremely promising career elsewhere.
Marc Guehi left the year before Livramento but had senior experience under his belt and earned £20million when he left for Crystal Palace. Chelsea remain interested in signing Guehi back for what is likely to stretch to beyond £50million even in the final 12 months of his contract.
It was a mixture of Clearlake-Boehly and Abramovich which led to the departure of Antonio Rudiger. He left for free at the end of his contract in 2022.
Chelsea were unable to negotiate a new one with him after March that year due to Roman Abramovich's UK government inflicted sanctions which put a freeze on Chelsea's business. By the time the new administration were through the doors, Rudiger had agreed to go elsewhere.
He has since won the Champions League twice and continued to prove himself to be one of the world's best centre-backs. It is back to Abramovich for the sale of Fikayo Tomori, though.
Antonio Rudiger playing for Chelsea
Antonio Rudiger left Chelsea for free (Image: James Williamson - AMA/Getty Images)
The Cobham graduate broke through under Frank Lampard in 2019 after playing on loan for the club legend at Derby County in the Championship the year before. He was part of the youthful Lampard team which qualified for the Champions League in his first season but was soon cut out.
Tomori eventually left to join Milan, where he won Serie A in his first full season. Tomori went for £25million and has now played 167 times for Milan.
On the left and there is only Clearlake-Boehly to look at for Lewis Hall. He missed the Carabao Cup final for Newcastle earlier this month, unlike Livramento, but has still established himself as one of the best young left-backs around.
He was offered a route into the Chelsea first team at just 18 under Graham Potter but was allowed to leave six months later. Hall had looked set to join Palace permanently before a new Chelsea contract was signed. He then went to Newcastle on loan with an obligation to buy for £32million last summer.
Chelsea have since been left with no cover for Marc Cucurella after Renato Veiga asked to leave six months after arriving. He now sees himself as a centre-back. Ian Maatsen was sold for more than £37million to Aston Villa in a deal which saw Chelsea buy Omari Kellyman for £19million at the same time.
Selling academy players helps the accounts as they count as 'pure profit' without an amortised transfer fee. The same is true of Conor Gallagher further forward. Despite being one of Mauricio Pochettino's best players last season, Gallagher was shipped off to Atletico Madrid for £35million whilst Chelsea purchased Joao Felix for £45million to bolster their finances again.
Gallagher has left Chelsea lacking in midfield legs with Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez stretched. Romeo Lavia has been just as unreliable due to injuries. As a fan favourite, Gallagher is a player many believed could have helped Chelsea and Enzo Maresca.
It was Mateo Kovacic's £30million move to Manchester City which opened up a starting spot for Gallagher in the first place. Along with Mendy and others to come on this list, Kovacic was sold in Clearlake-Boehly's second summer in charge as part of the massive rebuild.
He has since gone on to have great success in Manchester but looked leggy and tired by the end of his Chelsea days, as plenty did following the 2022/23. This one still looks like a good deal for all parties.
Mateo Kovacic of Manchester City scores the second goal during the Premier League match at Chelsea
Mateo Kovacic scores for Manchester City against Chelsea
Perhaps the same can be said for Omari Hutchinson. Chelsea banked a healthy £20million from his sale to Ipswich Town over the summer after he helped get Kieran McKenna's side promoted from the Championship in the first place.
Hutchinson has now had a year of top-flight football under his belt and has impressed. However, he is destined to be back in the EFL unless another summer move comes about.
Chelsea could have done with a player of Hutchinson's talent and workrate out wide but Noni Madueke would have been ahead of him in the pecking order. Whether or not the other attackers signed have been worthwhile in comparison to Hutchinson is another story.
One deal which looked cheap at the time and has only proven so is Callum Hudson-Odoi. Coming towards the end of his contract and unwanted after a disappointing loan at Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea managed only £3million from Nottingham Forest and that always looked a steal.
He is now in the Champions League places and thriving on the left. Chelsea's replacements for Hudson-Odoi, meanwhile, have been Mykhailo Mudrk, Pedro Neto, and Felix. Together they cost £157million and have not managed to replicate Hudson-Odoi at the City Ground. Jadon Sancho will either be a £20-25million addition to that or will end up costing Chelsea more than Hudson-Odoi to not sign him from Manchester United over the summer.
The striker spot is a touchy one. Few will debate that Romelu Lukaku had to be sold after his infamous interview only months after joining for £97.5million in 2021. Abramovich and Granovskaia couldn't find a permanent solution, though, and Clearlake-Boehly resorted to loaning him out before a £34million deal with Antonio Conte and Inter was done last summer.
Lukaku remains a common source of anger for Chelsea fans as they look back on what could have been. As for Kai Havertz, the manner of his move to Arsenal leaves him as Public Enemy No.1 a lot of the time.
Unlike other Chelsea players to have left for a rival (Juan Mata, most notably), Havertz does not get the good will. He celebrated wildly after scoring against Chelsea last season and despite scoring a Champions League winning goal, is not a popular figure.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Chelsea will rightly see the £65million they got for him after three years of disappointing and inconsistent returns as very good business. They replaced him with Nicolas Jackson for half the price and the impact has been night and day.
Havertz continues to do well for Arsenal without setting the world alight. Not many would accept a trade between the two players, which says everything.
The total Chelsea got back for these players is a massive £283million. Looking to some other names who have gone on to do well since leaving and Marcin Bulka was one who left to join Paris Saint-Germain as a promising goalkeeper. He was linked with a return last summer.
Thibaut Courtois is also impossible to miss off after his acrimonious push to join Real Madrid. Ola Aina has taken a long route to the top since leaving but is now showing why he was so highly rated at Cobham. Billy Gilmour has had a tougher time but is on a different trajectory at Napoli after Brighton snagged him for cheap.
So across the Chelsea owners and mainly five years (but back to seven for Courtois and six for Aina) many top players have left. Most have gone for good money, some not so much.
The rate of change has left a strong team of players here that the club sold. Some have been more successful than others and some were let go at the right time, others not so much.
Chelsea XI that was sold: Mendy; Livramento, Guehi, Tomori, Hall; Hudson-Odoi, Kovacic, Gallagher, Hutchinson; Havertz, Lukaku.
Bench: Bulka, Courtois, Aina, Maatsen, Gilmour, Rudiger.
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Chelsea flag prior the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final Leg One match between Chelsea FC and Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge. (Photo by Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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