Chelsea forced to pay Brighton more cash as Boehly outlay to Seagulls hits £225m

28 February 2024 , 16:45

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Todd Boehly has given Brighton more money than it cost the Seagulls to build their stadium since arriving at Chelsea (Image: Getty Images)

Chelsea have been ordered to fork out up to £7.65m to Brighton for two wonderkids.

A tribunal decided the Blues must pay a basic fee of £1m rising to a potential £4.25m for striker Shumaira Mheuka, 16, after he moved to Stamford Bridge in July 2022. Brighton have also been awarded compensation of up to £3.15m for promising left-back Zak Sturge plus another £250,000 if the 19-year-old plays for England.

Londoner Sturge was poached from Brighton by Chelsea last year and spent the first half of the season on loan at Peterborough. Since Todd Boehly took control of Chelsea they have paid Brighton more than £225m for players and staff – more than double what it cost to build the Amex Stadium.

Chelsea forked out a club record £115m fee to buy midfielder Moises Caicedo in the summer - a deal which has yet to bear fruit so far this season. The Blues also signed goalkeeper Robert Sanchez in a move costing an initial £25m.

Prior to that, Chelsea spent heavily to land left-back Marc Cucurella, another player who has failed to justify his price tag, which could eventually cost the Blues £63m. Some of their spending was offset by selling Billy Gilmour to Brighton, though his £9m fee was paltry in comparison.

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Chelsea have also strengthened their backroom operations with the acquisitions of sporting director Paul Winstanley, as well as his replacement at the Amex Stadium Sam Jewell, who is now on gardening leave ahead of taking up a senior recruitment role at Stamford Bridge.

Boehly also paid the price for the ill-fated tenure of Graham Potter, who cost them £21.5m in compensation to prise from Brighton, while a number of his backroom staff followed before they were all dismissed just seven months later.

Chelsea had to pay £2.1m in compensation to Brighton for Zak Sturge (Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

Chelsea's exorbitant spending, which now totals over £1billion under Boehly's regime, has come under even further scrutiny after their defeat in the Carabao Cup final to Liverpool, who were forced to play several academy youngsters with only a few appearances to their name due to a hefty list of injury absentees. Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville branded Chelsea "billion pound bottlers" after the 1-0 defeat in extra time.

But Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino has hit back at those constantly pointing fingers at the club's spending. “The problem is so annoying when after eight months always people talk about one billion,” Pochettino said. “I feel that’s a little bit unfair.

“The new owners arrived with the right intention and they want to build something that is different from the past. For me the players have an amazing quality, they only need time.

“It’s not an excuse for me because if I am here or not, it’s not dependent on me, it’s dependent of my job and I think we are doing an amazing job."

Alex Crook