Chelsea will only have enough budget to sign perhaps one first team player this summer, according to the Manchester Evening News.
They will be able to add any money earned through sales to that, but that’s still not sufficient for a team looking to go forwards and not just sideways.
The context is a article about Chelsea attacker Willian’s potential move to Manchester United, but there’s an interesting line in there about Roman Abramovich’s summer plans.
It says that the Russian will make “just £50-60m available” for whoever is the manager this summer to spend.
That’s not much in the modern day transfer market. In fact, it’s only enough for maybe one first team player – just see the sums we spend on backups Danny Drinkwater and Davide Zappacosta last summer.
Selling Willian might raise £60m more, but if you’re selling your stars to your rivals, you’re losing a serious competitive advantage.
