Chelsea accused of bluffing over Enzo Fernandez as finance expert reveals alarming BlueCo shortfall

A football finance expert claims that Chelsea need to sell Manchester City target Enzo Fernandez to balance the books.

So far this summer, the Blues have spent around £340million on the likes of Morgan Rogers, Maxence Lacroix, Marco Palestra, Geovany Quenda, and Valentin Barco, among others.

On the flip side, they have sold nearly £250m worth of players, including Andrey Santos, Nicolas Jackson, Marc Cucurella and Liam Delap.

However, they don’t have the financial comfort blanket of playing in European football – which can bring in up to £100m in revenue – this season, which will hit their coffers hard.

Earlier this summer, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest were fined by UEFA for breaching financial sustainability regulations.

All four clubs fell afoul of UEFA’s squad cost rule, with Chelsea getting fined £2.6m, of which £1.7m was suspended.

Then in July, they were hit with a £10m FA fine for questionable agent deals under former Blues owner Roman Abramovich. They also got slapped with a suspended transfer ban (which is suspended until June 2027) and avoided a sporting sanction from UEFA, the FA, and the Premier League.

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As a result of all that, financial expert Stefan Borson has stressed that Chelsea need to sell Fernandez before the transfer window shuts on Tuesday night.

Chelsea ‘need more profit’

The Argentina international has been linked with a £120m move to Man City and despite all their “bluffing”, Borson thinks they need to move him on for their finances.

He said on talkSPORT, “When Fernandez signs for [Man] City, which I think is inevitable. Chelsea have done a great job bluffing it out. But I think they need to sell, for the UEFA settlement.

“I think they could sell either in January or next June but my reading of their numbers, even with their very active sales this summer, they do need a bit more profit.

“This season they are going to be £80-100m down from having no European football and they are not in the best place to cope with that just because it’s a relatively small stadium; they are adding costs because they have been active in bringing wages in, and their wage bill remains stubbornly high.

“I do think they need that profit, it would be a big profit, and I do think they need that for the settlement agreement.”

In March, Premier League teams voted to move to a system called squad cost ratio (SCR) for the 2026-27 campaign. This allowed clubs to spend 85% of their income on player costs.

UEFA’s SCR spending limit is 70%, which Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League teams must adhere to. All teams need to watch their finances but for Chelsea, it may be a reprieve to not be competing in Europe until they get their ducks in order.

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