Jose Mourinho may currently be staging a media boycott as a response to what he perceives to be a conspiracy against his Chelsea team, but if there are dark forces at work around Stamford Bridge then they aren’t having the desired effect. Mourinho’s talk of a “campaign” against his team, coming after the recent draw at Southampton and earning him an FA charge last week, has been designed to alleviate the focus on Chelsea’s recent blip in form, but peel away the paranoia that often creeps into the world of their Portuguese coach and it begins to seem an exaggerated reaction.
A total of 8 points may have been dropped since the start of December, allowing Manchester City to bite into the margin Chelsea had built with their blistering early season form, but the London club are once again clear at the top of the table after Saturday’s 2-0 win over Newcastle.
It wasn’t vintage, a defence that had conceded just 2 goals in the 7 games building up to the game at Southampton and has suddenly begun to face questions after shipping 5 at Tottenham on New Year’s Day, was again troubled with worrying regularity but the class of Eden Hazard and goal-scorers Oscar and Diego Costa would ultimately shine through.
Attackers in form, top of the league, still in all four competitions in mid-January, things are a lot rosier in southwest London than a silent Mourinho would have you believe.
That also applies off the field where in November they reported a profit of £18.4 million and a record turnover of £319.8 million for the preceding year, the largest since Roman Abramovich took control of the club in 2003. Those figures, in huge contrast to the £49.4 million loss they posted in 2013, were accounted for by their share of the bumper £1 billion television deal and from the big money sales of Juan Mata, Kevin De Bruyne and David Luiz.
The club’s annual wage bill has risen to £190.5 million, a figure that sits below the two Manchester clubs, though huge jumps in broadcasting and commercial revenues means they are comfortably in line to comply with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations. That is despite lavishing a total of around £90 million to bring in Costa, Loic Remy, Cesc Fabregas and Felipe Luis over the summer.
Assistant coach Steve Holland has claimed that Mourinho “doesn’t want any transfer activity” this month but Chelsea’s healthy financial position means that he is likely to be given funds should he require them. An audacious move for Lionel Messi, somehow rising through the rumour mill in complete ignorance of UEFA’s FFP regulations, is out of the question but given Holland mentioned a “need to be reactive”, in reference to last January’s sale of Mata to Manchester United, the prospect of some business at Chelsea this month shouldn’t be discarded.
That business is more than likely to be outgoings with Andre Schurrle, having experienced a severe dip in form following his return from a virus in October, and Mohammed Salah closest to the exit door. The latter especially is an embodiment of a club transfer policy that still requires plenty of fine-tuning. The Egyptian winger joined for £11 million last January but has made just 6 starts in the following 12 months. Meanwhile Schurrle, having joined the club for £18 million in June 2013, has courted interest from Wolfsburg in Germany to the tune of £23 million– representing a profit for Chelsea regardless of the winger’s wretched recent form.
If Mourinho is worried about a potential lack of cover should he relinquish a player or two in this window there is always the 16 players Chelsea currently have out on loan, offering an insight into the culture of a club using its financial muscle to stockpile players to make use of a system heavily in favour of the rich and powerful.
One of those players currently out on loan is Victor Moses at Stoke, the £9 million signing from Wigan in August 2012 who has not appeared for his parent club since May 2013. With Fernando Torres finally calling time on his troubled spell at Stamford Bridge this month, seeing his contract bought out by AC Milan for £2 million after initially joining Chelsea for a record £50 million, it seems like the capacity to recklessly dispense money across the market still exists at the club. It is a business model out of reach of many other clubs, allowing for low-risk investment in the knowledge that any loss will be written off by Abramovich’s billions should it backfire.
Astute player sales and a market that is over-inflating to ridiculous levels has moved Chelsea back into the black and into the healthy situation of Abramovich managing to reap the positive publicity of becoming the first Premier League owner to pay the national living wage to his staff. Nemanja Matic has been superb since joining from Benfica 12 months ago for £21 million but he was valued at under £5 million when he was used as part of the deal to take David Luiz to Chelsea in 2011. Such careless business will always be a part of the modern Chelsea but as long as they are heading to success, making profits along the way, their hierarchy certainly won’t mind. It may even coax a smile from Jose Mourinho.
