Chelsea sees best transfer value from Eredivisie, Liga NOS; Serie A worst

Chelsea have added one player from four of Europe’s top five leagues so far this summer. If the Blues’ transfer history is any guide, Tiemoue Bakayoko will be worth his fee far more than Antonio Rudiger.

Chelsea have brought in 112 players from around the world on transfers since 2003. Nearly 90% of Chelsea’s £1.06 billion of transfer fee paid for players from Europe’s top seven leagues.

Ligue 1 transfers have played nearly as many games for Chelsea as Premier League additions. The Eredivisie and Liga NOS provide the best value for the Blues, while Serie A is at the opposite end of the scale.

Roman Abramovich has spent handsomely to secure Ligue 1 players like Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and Eden Hazard. He also picked up immense values in Petr Cech (£7 million) and Cesar Azpilicueta (£6.5 million).

The Blues’ transfer bill to Ligue 1 amounts to over £194 million. But for that spend, Chelsea have reaped 2,022 appearances. Only players from the Premier League have produced more Chelsea appearances – 2,232, at a cost of over £230 million.

At the other end of the scale, Chelsea have spent over £131 million on transfers from Serie A. Only one of those players – Oscar – made more than 100 appearances for the Blues. Among the others is the club’s biggest transfer flop, Andriy Shevchenko.

Serie A transfers combined for only 441 appearances, costing Abramovich nearly £300,000 per appearances. By contrast, the Ligue 1 alumni cost under £100,000 per game.

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While the Eredivisie gets the most attention around Stamford Bridge as a loan destination, the Dutch league is also the best value for Chelsea’s transfer pound. Players arriving from the Netherlands – including Arjen Robben and Solomon Kalou – cost only £61,000 per appearance. Overall these players made 538 appearances on a transfer sum of £33 million.

Similarly, Chelsea spent £10 million less on players from Liga NOS (Portugal) as they did from Serie A, but reaped three times the number of appearances. Leading the way for the ex-Liga Nos players were Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho, Ramires and David Luiz on his first time as a Blue.

The Eredivise and Liga Nos were the only two leagues where there was a clear relationship between the amount spent on a transfer and the number of Chelsea appearances that player would go on to make. Overall, the more Chelsea paid for a player from Netherlands or Portugal, the more service he rendered the Blues.

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Once again, Serie A had a strongly negative trend on this count. Chelsea paid more for less from Italian clubs, while there was little relationship between fee and appearances in the other leagues.

Beyond the major European leagues Chelsea have purchased players from 14 other countries and all levels of the English game. Some of the notable players on whom Chelsea spent some of the remaning £126 million are Branislav Ivanovic (Lokomotiv Moscow), Mikel John Obi (Norway, on a free signing) and the Belgian trio of Thibaut Courtois, Kevin de Bruyne (both from Genk) and Romelu Lukaku (Anderlecht).

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Data compiled from Soccerbase, TheChels and whoscored.com.