It will surprise few football fans that Chelsea have had a busy summer on the transfer market – already. The club has made many purchases, with eight players coming in for fees of €10m or more at the time of writing. They’ve also had a major clearout, and have sold seven players for €10m or more, most recently Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Everton. There’s something notable about Chelsea’s recent acquisitions: none of the new buys is over the age of 23, and the average age of the eight players signed at the time of writing is less than 20 years old.
There are two main reasons for this. Clearly, on the face of it, buying younger players can be a fine strategy as they could be at the club for years to come, and – assuming they develop well – their value will only increase. Also, in the age of Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules that include Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), it makes sense to buy younger players so they can be placed on very long contracts. This allows the club in question to effectively spread the cost of the transfer across the whole term of the contract. And it’s fair more desirable to offer a 20-year-old a seven-year contract than a player in his early 30s.
As we head into the 2025/26 season, the question for Chelsea fans is whether or not the strategy of buying young and often relatively inexperienced players is a recipe for success. Or could putting half the squad on seven-year-contracts backfire if certain players don’t live up to their potential?
Who Have Chelsea Purchased During the Summer of 2025?
Here are the players Chelsea have purchased so far. Of course, by the time you read this they might have added one or two more, but for now, here are the incoming signings.
| Player | Position | Age | Bought From | Fee (Approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| João Pedro | Centre-Forward | 23 | Brighton | €63.70m |
| Jamie Gittens | Left Winger | 20 | Borussia Dortmund | €56.00m |
| Jorrel Hato | Left-Back | 19 | Ajax | €44.18m |
| Liam Delap | Centre-Forward | 22 | Ipswich | €35.50m |
| Estêvão | Right Winger | 18 | Palmeiras | €34.00m |
| Dário Essugo | Defensive Midfield | 20 | Sporting CP | €22.27m |
| Mamadou Sarr | Centre-Back | 19 | Strasbourg | €14.00m |
| Kendry Páez | Attacking Midfield | 18 | Independiente | €10.00m |
In keeping with Chelsea’s recent strategy, João Pedro and Mamadou Sarr have been signed up on eight-year contracts, Jamie Gittens and Jorrel Hato are on the books for seven years, and Liam Delap is tied in for six years. Given the ages of the players in question, there’s every chance most of those players will increase in value and hence could be sold on for potentially healthy profits. Or indeed they could help Chelsea win silverware.
The other bonus of a long contract, from the club’s perspective, is that players are unable to leave on a free transfer anytime soon. As Liverpool found to their detriment when Trent Alexander-Arnold left for Real Madrid, a high-value player leaving without a big transfer fee can leave a bitter taste – and potentially a big hole in the finances. This shouldn’t be an issue for Chelsea with the many players they have on long contracts. But what happens if the players simply don’t perform?
Risk of Bulging Squad with Inflated Wage Bill
While tying players in to long contracts has several benefits for the club, there is a flipside too. Premier League footballers earn a lot of money and good wage offers are pivotal to attract top talent to sign for clubs in the first place. From a player’s point of view, being placed on a seven-year contract with excellent wages offers a fantastic level of security and even insurance. Even if they don’t perform as well as the club (or the player) hopes, they’ll still be earning their wages each week. There is therefore a danger that some players may lack some of the hunger to prove themselves to their manager and the club’s fans.
There are numerous examples through the history of the Premier League (and long before that) of players who appeared happy enough to get paid millions of pounds to warm the bench and play bit-part roles. Often clubs want to offload such underperformers, who are not great for morale given they are often on better deals than players who are working their hearts out. The problem is, other clubs are understandably wary of signing such footballers given they have exhibited what could be viewed as poor behaviour, and of course because such players are often unwilling to take a significant cut in their wages, despite not proving their worth.
Recent Examples of Overpaid Underperformers
Chelsea have had their fair share of overpaid, underperforming players in recent times. Raheem Sterling is a prime example. Earning something north of £300,000 per week, he signed for Chelsea in July 2022 from Manchester City for a fee of just under £50m. Given a five-year contract, he still has two years left to run, but he hasn’t played for the Blues since the 2023/24 season. Even then, he was well below his best, scoring 10 goals in 43 games (a far cry from the 31 goals he notched in 52 outings for Man City in the 2019/20 campaign).
He was sent out on loan to Arsenal last term in the hope he’d find form and the Gunners (or another club) would be persuaded to buy him. But he scored just once in 28 appearances for the north London side, and the likelihood of Chelsea selling him decreased. He’s been linked with several Premier League teams during the current transfer window, but at the time of writing, he’s still a Chelsea player… collecting those very large pay packets.
Lots of other clubs have faced similar situations, with Marcus Rashford one of several well-paid players Manchester United had been struggling to move on until he signed a season-long loan deal to join Barcelona.
Chelsea’s Risk Is Calculated to Succeed
Chelsea’s squad is packed full of players in the late teens and early 20s, most of whom have the capacity to develop into excellent players. Not all of them will be successful at the club… not least because there are only so many who can feature in any given match. Other players might well begin to get disgruntled if they are not given the game time they believe they deserve. And others still may simply lose the motivation to compete for first-team spots.
But the club hierarchy have almost certainly taken all that into account and have concluded that signing lots of very good young players and putting them on long contracts is the optimal way of bringing success to the club while also balancing the books. They are hoping that for every Sterling, there’ll be at least two or three others such as Cole Palmer, Moisés Caicedo or Reece James who continue to develop and excel. It remains to be seen whether the strategy will bear fruit this season, but the Blues can be hopeful the young talent will bring sustained success to the club before too long.