Football finance: David Luiz’s transfer was routine business for Chelsea

Chelsea’s public relations and marketing team had to go into overdrive when word leaked about David Luiz’s impending return. On the finance side of Stamford Bridge, the accountants probably greeted the news with a shrug.

For all the #passion David Luiz’s signing generated among Chelsea fans, on paper, it was a pretty routine piece of business. While Blues watchers will continue debating whether Luiz’s return was worth £34 million, the Brazilian’s transfer fee was not disproportionate to Chelsea’s total spend. Nor did Chelsea pay significantly more for Luiz than for the other new arrivals this season.

Luiz’s transfer fee was 28% of Chelsea’s total transfer expenditure this summer. The Blues’ second-most expensive signing was Michy Batshuayi, whose £32.3 million fee was only a 5% difference from Luiz’s.

must read: Debate: How will the David Luiz experiment play out?

Both of these markers are well within the usual range for Chelsea’s transfer activity. In four of the last six seasons, Chelsea’s most expensive signing accounted for 26-28% of the overall outlay. The two exceptions were Eden Hazard in 2012/13 and Fernando Torres in 2010/11. Hazard’s £32 million fee made up 35% of the 2012/13 spend. Fernando Torres’ record £50 million fee was 53% of the club’s activity.

Torres’ arrival season was the last time Chelsea signed only five players in the transfer windows. The Spaniard’s transfer fee set another Chelsea record: it was 137% greater than that of Chelsea’s second-most expensive signing that season… David Luiz.

In the two seasons prior to Luiz’s first stint at Chelsea, the Blues had a dominant signing who accounted for a large percentage of the club’s outlay and whose transfer fee dwarfed the next highest. Chelsea spent 77% of their 2009/2010 transfer kitty on Yuri Zhirkov (Who? Exactly).

Zhirkov’s £18 million fee was 4.5 times that of Daniel Sturridge’s, and 12 times that of Nemanja Matic’s first transfer to Chelsea.

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For the record, Zhirkov went on to make 49 appearances and score 1 goal for the Blues between 2009-2011.

The last time Chelsea’s two most expensive signings of a given transfer window were within 5% of each other was 2003/04. Chelsea signed 17 players in the £153.5 million splurge that marked Roman Abramovich’s first year at Stamford Bridge. Damien Duff and Hernan Crespo were the top two signings, separated by a mere 1.2% (£200,000). Duff’s then-club record £17 million fee crushed Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s previous record by 13%. But it was only 11% of Abramovich’s largesse that year.

Chelsea earned loads of publicity at a fraction of the cost by signing a polarizing player on transfer deadline day. Perhaps Luiz’s £34 million worth of headlines will generate some jealousy and resentment at Old Trafford after their £89 million Pogback PR stunt. That alone could make the whole thing worthwhile.

All data via Transfer League.