Write an article about Chelsea’s cup runneth over before season starts .Organize the content with appropriate headings and subheadings (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6), Retain any existing tags from
Chelsea fans must be pinching themselves.
Six weeks after winning the Conference, they’re in another final.
Although underdogs to the team of the season, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), the Blues are nothing if not winners.
They were underdogs in their last two Champions League finals, but beat both Bayern Munich and Manchester City.
They also have a couple of game changing Brazilians up front.
And if they win the Club World Cup (CWC), they will just about pay for them with the near £100 million prize money.
Joao Pedro and Estevao have already made quite an impact, even if the latter was playing against them.
But the 18-year-old’s farewell goal for Palmeiras was surely a stunning foretaste of things to come in Chelsea blue.
For his part, Pedro’s two pearlers in the semi-final against Fluminense suggest he could be the answer to the long-standing striker problem.
And there are two more new arrivals in Jamie Gittens from Borussia Dortmund and Liam Delap from Ipswich for a combined £78million.
That’s a lot of extra firepower.
Enough, you have to say, to put the frighteners on their Premier League rivals.
But there’s nothing like a trophy and exciting recruits to put a spring in your step and Chelsea may have both.
Even if they don’t win it, the club will still say it’s been worth it.
For the fans, the season can’t come soon enough.
Besides the new boys, they have Pedro Neto, Joao Felix, Noni Madueke, Amanda Broja, Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku in attack.
It doesn’t leave much room for Raheem Sterling.
And then there’s Enzo Fernandes and Cole Palmer running the show from midfield.
There are too many to mention and some will surely be sold? Won’t they?
With Chelsea, we can’t be sure, and the squad size has been a stick with which to beat the owners, Todd Boehly and his Blueco cronies.
But it’s they who are laughing now.
Along with manager Enzo Maresca, who, unbelievably, was said to be under a bit of pressure during a sticky first half of last season.
The Italian has to be admired for just remembering their names, let alone getting a coherent tune out of them.
But you cannot help but wonder how they’ve got away with the wheeling and dealing.
The official answer is that the owners sold two hotels and a car park to themselves for £76.5m.
And if that wasn’t clever enough accounting, when things got a little tricky again, they found the same “buyer” for their women’s team… the same sister company.
It might be an old story, but it’s no longer water under Stamford Bridge.
This very week, the club was fined £27m by UEFA for breaching spending guidelines.
And now that Chelsea are serious contenders for the English Premier League (EPL) title, it’s likely to be raised again.
Chelsea legend Pat Nevin admitted: “Fans of other clubs will be flabbergasted that Chelsea can continually keep splashing the cash when they have demonstrably broken the financial rules and bent a few others wildly out of shape.”
Writing on the BBC website, he acknowledged: “However, we are in a strange, post-reality world. Getting multi-million-pound fines is not considered problematic for the club or for the integrity of the sport.
“Other clubs, who naively played within the rules, must feel stupid as the Blues cruise to the latter stages of the CWC after qualifying for the Champions League, especially when they consider all the massive financial rewards they provide.”
Finance expert Kieran Maguire, who had predicted a 15-point deduction for the Blues in 2024, agreed.
He said: “Everton and Nottingham Forest (who were deducted points for minor infractions in 2023-24) are right to be furious at Chelsea.”
Manchester United and Newcastle might also be raising their hackles as the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) are forcing both to tread carefully.
Chelsea have spent over £1.3 billion on signings since Todd Boehly’s consortium completed its purchase in May 2022.
The Blues appear to have got away with it because the Premier League decided the deals complied with its Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules.
Yet it is this same issue that’s at the heart of the dispute with Manchester City, a verdict on which we still await.
Could it be that the League did not want to open a second Pandora’s Box while the case has yet to be decided?
It’s hard not to think the huge spending that is going on in the meantime suggests a wind is blowing in favour of City and the other big clubs who want PSR lifted.
As for the CWC final (Monday, 3am in Malaysia), Chelsea hopes to have the injured Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia fit to face the irresistible Parisians.
They do have an extra day in which to prepare, but Real Madrid didn’t exactly tire the European champions out.
On the contrary, so easy was their semi-final stroll that Luis Enrique was able to take off dangermen Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia after an hour.
But they’re all dangermen in this wonderful side built since the big egos left.
They are relentless in the press and attack in waves, so a full-strength Chelsea will be pushed to keep them at bay.
Real Madrid was overwhelmed. Too bad for them that Trent Arnold wasn’t fit to play after paying £10m to make him eligible. But for him, it was probably a lucky escape.
If Chelsea has a weakness, it’s in goal where Robert Sanchez isn’t a top draw keeper. He can be brilliant, but not consistently.
Still, expect Chelsea to put up a better show than Real Madrid.
The hope is that for PSG, Real was the real final, and if they think their main job is done, Chelsea are capable of pulling off a shock.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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