How Chelsea’s strict salaries are hurting striker search, Thomas Tuchel’s texts to England players revealed and what AI can tell us about how good wonderkids will be: CHELSEA CONFIDENTIAL
Missed amid the focus on Chelsea selling their women’s team to a sister company for a tidy £198.7million profit in their financial accounts was the stark decrease in wages.
For the year ending June 2023, it stood at £352.4m. For June 2024, it was £294.6m.
Chelsea have a salary structure to which they want to adhere while remaining competitive, based on a low base by Premier League standards with big incentives built in.
If you perform to your potential, you get your bumps. If you do not, you receive the bottom line. It is seen as smart business, the bonus being it makes it easier to sell any assets not living up to expectations.
Trouble is, strikers are expensive. Not only in transfer fee but in the wages they can command, especially when so many at England’s elite level are currently engaged in the same search.
It was already the priciest position. Now you have Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and many more competing to find themselves that centre forward who will take them to the next level.
Despite positive signs this term, Nicolas Jackson hasn’t always convinced up front for Chelsea
Liam Delap, who scored in Ipswich’s 2-0 win over Chelsea in December, is one of the Blues’ key striker targets
Hopefully you will forgive and understand the need for anonymity here, but Confidential this week spoke with the camp of a striker who has been linked with Chelsea and others.
I’m told he will not be turning up at Stamford Bridge any time soon because, according to the agent, there are others who have been instantly willing to go higher in the weekly wages he would be guaranteed to take home.
That includes one club currently situated in the bottom half of the Premier League. ‘Chelsea don’t pay salaries,’ the source said, simply.
Of course, this is simply the situation with one particular player.
This is not to say Chelsea would refuse to make an exception if they set their sights on the striker they perceived as perfect for their project. I’m assured they would do that, if necessary.
But it would appear initially they are hopeful of finding the ideal centre forward who will not only suit their playing style, but their paying structure without breaking the bank.
Liam Delap is one of those very much on Chelsea’s radar, but as previously reported, they face fierce competition from Manchester United.
Tuchel’s texts revealed
Thomas Tuchel’s man-management skills at Chelsea saw him get the maximum out of players, and Confidential can reveal the German has taken to personally letting English players know when he will be attending their Premier League games, out of courtesy.
We can reveal Thomas Tuchel has taken to personally letting English players know when he will be attending their Premier League games
It has been well received, with the former Blues boss not only sending his heads up and well wishes to Three Lions regulars but to those purely on his radar.
Tuchel previously compiled a 55-strong long-list of Englishmen worth tracking ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
Tuchel was at Stamford Bridge to take in Chelsea versus Tottenham on Thursday. He followed that up with trips to Crystal Palace-Brighton on Saturday, and Fulham-Liverpool on Sunday.
Predict Maresca’s XI, then tell me the lottery numbers
Good luck to anyone trying to guess Chelsea’s starting line-up for Legia Warsaw on Thursday. If you happen to nail it, I’ll take the lottery numbers for Saturday from you also.
Enzo Maresca’s mind is hard to read, as the statistics show. Chelsea have averaged 7.2 changes per game to their XIs in all competitions this season, underlining how much chopping and changing has been done by the Italian head coach amid their Conference League involvement.
The nearest Premier League club are Ipswich, on 4.4.
Maresca’s tendency to rotate his team so regularly and so comprehensively has contributed to Chelsea using more players than any other club this campaign.
They have used 38 in total, while two of their top-four rivals in Nottingham Forest and Newcastle have used the fewest in 26.
Enzo Maresca’s mind is hard to read, as the statistics show. Chelsea have averaged 7.2 changes per game to their XIs in all competitions this season
Average changes to XI in all comps 2024-25:
7.2 – Chelsea
4.44 – Ipswich
4.43 – Man City
4.34 – Tottenham
3.97 – Southampton
3.9 – Liverpool
3.72 – Fulham
3.62 – Man Utd
3.59 – Arsenal
3.57 – Nottingham Forest
Santos and Strasbourg a marriage made in heaven… so what about Chelsea?
Andrey Santos is killing it on loan at Strasbourg, and Chelsea know that as well as anyone, as their loan department is diligent in their tracking of who is achieving what and where.
They have assigned a loan technical coach to each loanee as they speak, analyse and exchange views on video clips weekly. Ed Brand, for example, has been following Lesley Ugochukwu at Southampton and Armando Broja at Everton this season, as well as Trevoh Chalobah when he was at Crystal Palace.
It is hard to tell how Santos will do once back with Chelsea, if indeed he stays this summer. In search of an answer, Confidential asked Oliver Dehnhardt, the former head scout at Ajax and now head of football strategy at AI football scouting platform Eyeball, for his expertise.
Andrey Santos is killing it on loan at Strasbourg, and Chelsea know that as well as anyone, as their loan department is diligent in their tracking of who is achieving what and where
It is hard to tell how Santos will do once back with Chelsea, if indeed he stays this summer
Santos (right) has nine goals and two assists in 26 Ligue 1 games on loan at Chelsea’s sister club this season
Basically, can AI tell a club as data-savvy as Chelsea whether Santos will be a hit?
‘Historically, if you are performing at that level, at that age, in a “top five league”, you at least solely on a footballing level have what it takes to play for a top five team in the Premier League,’ he told us.
‘Adaptation is still something that all players must go through and it’s a very personal thing – this often takes place off the pitch and AI and data often struggles to predict this.
‘In the case of Santos, I think the question should be less focused on if he can perform at this level and more about how Chelsea can use him best to ensure he is able to adapt both on and off the pitch in the way that they want him to.’
£11k ticket to watch Liverpool win the title… and then go to Chelsea’s awards do
Without wishing to get into all the permutations, let’s just say there’s a chance – a good one – that Arne Slot’s Liverpool could win the title at Stamford Bridge on May 4.
Chelsea have arranged their awards evening for that same night at London’s Grosvenor House in Park Lane (Moises Caicedo gets my vote for player of the season, by the way).
If you purchase a ticket to the Dugout Club at Stamford Bridge for that day’s game – £7,995 for the away section, £10,995 for the home – Chelsea are chucking in a free ticket to their do as well.
You do wonder if Liverpool fans will start snapping up those available VIP seats if and when it’s looking likelier that they could clinch the title at the Bridge. I’m not sure they’ll attend the awards ceremony, mind. They might be too busy celebrating.
It was a Chelsea win at Stamford Bridge that sealed Liverpool’s last league title in 2020 – as Christian Pulisic scored twice in a 2-1 win over Manchester City
Maresca’s training wheels
Confidential was at Chelsea’s sun-kissed training ground last week when a cyclist pulled up next to us and cheerfully said: ‘Morning!’
It turned out the chap beneath the helmet was Enzo Maresca.
Good on him. He doesn’t cycle in every day, but does occasionally choose the healthy and environmentally friendly option, given he lives close enough to Cobham that he can do so.
13 still Under 18s’ lucky number
Chelsea set the record for the biggest-ever win recorded in the Under 18s Premier League when they won 13-0 in February 2017 versus Brighton. Conor Gallagher got the first goal in that victory.
That record appeared at risk when Manchester United’s Under 18s were leading 9-0 versus Leeds at half-time on Saturday.
United did indeed get 13, but the away side managed to get themselves on the board to only lose 13-1. With that, Chelsea’s record was safe. Phew.
Olise’s agent no longer banned from football
Chelsea fans will recall how their club were in talks to sign Michael Olise last summer, only to lose out on the Crystal Palace winger to Bayern Munich.
Olise’s agent Glen Tweneboah then had to serve a suspension from football after breaching FA rules in a previous agreement, effective as of October 5, 2024.
Michael Olise has been in electric form since joining Bayern Munich from Crystal Palace last summer
Confidential can report that as of this week, Tweneboah is no longer restricted by any ban, with his punishment having ended on Friday.
Given nobody in the Bundesliga has provided more assists than Olise this season, you would forgive Chelsea for wishing their former academy product had come home last summer.
Mudryk’s agent speaks
Journalists received an email last week in which quotes from Vadim Shablii, the agent of Mykhailo Mudryk, were pushed on us in case we wanted to publish a story using them.
He talked Vladyslav Krapyvtsov and Giorgi Sudakov and Vitalii Mykolenko and more Ukrainian stars, but not Mudryk, given ‘the sensitivity of his current situation’, as it was written in the Flashscore piece.
Mudryk remains suspended from football after failing a drugs test and has not appeared since facing Heidenheim in the Conference League on November 28.
