CHELSEA spend an astonishing £28million a MONTH on their wage bill, according to a football finance expert.
Such expenditure, combined with all the costs of running the club, including away travel, could lead the club to enter administration.
Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku are two of Chelsea’s highest earners
Kai Havertz is also paid big bucks
Worryingly, expert Kieran Maguire points out that Chelsea may not even have £28m in the bank at present with Roman Abramovich responsible for injecting cash as and when needed.
But now the Russian oligarch’s assets have been frozen this will no longer be possible, meaning the club are in crisis.
Maguire told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Chelsea’s wage bill is around about £28m a month. We don’t know how much cash they have in the bank.
“The most recent accounts we have are from June 2021 when there was £16m in the bank.
“Abramovich has been injecting money into Chelsea on a regular basis over recent years and presumably that won’t be able to continue.
“The concern might be what happens if Chelsea’s cash reserves are insufficient to pay their wage bill but presumably the government and Premier League, who have been working on this, will have been looking at it to try to minimise disruption on a club level.
“We need to see the terms of any sale licence. Presumably, the government would be in a position to ensure any funds from the sale of the club would go into an account that they can monitor to ensure that none of the proceeds go to Abramovich.
“He’s said the money would be paid into some form of funds to relieve victims in Ukraine so clearly the government would be careful to monitor how that money was collected from the sale of the club and then probably freeze it before releasing it to the appropriate sources.”
There are a number of high earners at the club with Timo Werner earning a reported £270,000-a-week.
Romelu Lukaku is believed to be the highest earner with a weekly wage of £325,000 and neither player has impressed this season with Thomas Tuchel opting for Kai Havertz up-front in recent games.
Abramovich put the club up for sale last week and an immediate takeover would help Chelsea avoid a scenario where they cannot afford to pay the wage bill.
However, any sale is now hugely complicated and may not even be possible.
It comes as:
- LIVE: The very latest from Stamford Bridge
- Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is sanctioned by UK Government and BANNED from selling club
- Q&A: What does it all mean for The Blues?
- Club at threat of POINTS DEDUCTION
- Chelsea are banned from selling match tickets
- Club slapped with transfer ban and giving out contracts
- Tonight’s game against Norwich is ON despite the drama
- Chelsea can only earn money from food and drink
- Strict travel budget means ban on private jets to away games
- FIVE players are now certain to leave in summer
