Chelsea FC To Record £18.4m In Annual Profits

Chelsea FC have notched a record £18.4m profits for the 2013-14 year and have reported a profit for only the second time during the Roman Abramovich era. The Blues were able to achieve by selling players like Juan Mata, David Luiz, and Romelu Lukaku for prices far beyond their initial transfer fee and frankly far beyond their actual value.

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Juan Mata was sold to Premier League rivals Manchester United for £37m last January less than a year removed from being named the Chelsea FC player of the year two seasons in a row. His lack of defensive ability and perhaps his small stature lead Jose Mourinho to deem him surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge and he was shipped off to Manchester.

Mata was a fan favorite and his transfer was not well received by many supporters, especially when the Blues would struggle to break down stubborn defenses later in the year. The Spaniard has not been a first choice regular under either David Moyes or Louis van Gaal and is hounded by rumored transfers back to Spain or off to Italy in the January transfer window.

Chelsea FC made another two surprising sales in the summer when they shipped of David Luiz to Paris Saint Germain for a ridiculous £50m transfer fee. Thankfully for Chelsea this was before his terrible performance in the World Cup for Brazil or his price tag would surely have dropped. Luiz has fit in well at PSG and is back in his familiar role at centerback unlike his final weeks at Chelsea where he was most often deployed as a central midfielder.

"‘The club is naturally pleased to record a significant profit for 2013/14. By reaching the Champions League semi-final and maintaining a challenge in the Premier League until the final week of the season we demonstrated that, while improving our financial figures, we remained competitive in football’s toughest club competitions.’‘We financed player purchases from sales as the squad for this current season was shaped, and our philosophy since Mr Abramovich acquired the club in 2003 has been to build upon success on the pitch. That is evident in the partnerships we signed and in our fanbase growth which contributed to the new record turnover figure and the profit made. We have done all of this at the same time as creating one of the world’s leading football community programmes through the Chelsea Foundation.’‘Going forward, we have ambitious plans to build a pioneering global commercial programme, partnering with innovative and market-leading organisations from around the world. In the era of FFP, we must progress commercially to continue the circle of success to invest in the team and get results.’Source: ChelseaFC.com"

The second surprising sale was of Romelu Lukaku to another Premier League club in Everton for the Toffees’ club record of £28m. The youngster grew disillusioned with life at Chelsea FC and felt that he would never get his chance to become a regular starter if he remained at Stamford Bride. So Jose Mourinho shipped out another malcontent and replaced him with a far superior striker in Diego Costa. Lukaku has done well at Everton but it is a stretch to believe he was worth £28m at the time.