In a recent revelation, Chelsea Football Club has been identified as the most financially extravagant in Premier League history, accumulating a staggering £1.2 billion in losses since the league’s inception. Much of the blame has been directed towards Roman Abramovich, who used the wealth amassed from post-Soviet Russia to make significant investments in British football.

However, Chelsea’s penchant for heavy spending did not end with Abramovich’s departure, which was a result of his connections with Vladimir Putin leading to sanctions and his exit from Stamford Bridge.

Clearlake Capital, the new owners, have continued the trend of extravagant expenditure, committing around £1.15 billion towards player acquisitions. Among these investments, the signing of Raheem Sterling stands out as a particularly controversial financial decision.

Back in 2022, when Thomas Tuchel advocated for Sterling’s acquisition, co-owner Todd Boehly offered him a lucrative £300,000-a-week contract. Sterling amicably departed from Manchester City and joined Chelsea.

However, the new American leadership, with their focus on younger talent, has led to even more extravagant spending. Chelsea, displaying the characteristic overconfidence of Premier League giants, prematurely finalized the paperwork for Sterling’s transfer to the Gulf, assuming he would accept, even before securing his approval.

Raheem Sterling’s time at Chelsea has been such a scandalous waste that it should have every right-minded Blues fan asking: ‘How dare they run our club this way?’

Co-owner Todd Boehly threw a £300,000-a-week contract at Sterling, begged him to sign and the forward left Manchester City with good grace

Raheem Sterling was understandably taken aback by this assumption. Having settled his family in London and enjoying personal moments like watching his son progress in Arsenal’s Under 9s academy, he was not eager to relocate to the Middle East. In response, he stood firm and declined to move.

Chelsea thought they could bully him, offering a choice between their bomb squad or the desert, but the gist of his response was: ‘I’ll stay, then. You won’t push me around.’

In any normal, intellectually-functioning realm of business, the answer to a player’s perfectly reasonable request not to be parked as a non-entity in the desert would be to accept that he was staying and extract what value they could from those wages. 

The evidence of the time Sterling spent on loan at Arsenal last year tells us that at the very least he is a positive, mentoring force among young players.

But since Chelsea don’t act in that kind of way, they have this season thrown him back in the bomb squad, marginalising him in a way which is degrading. 

The arrival of Liam Rosenior, a yes-man who has swallowed the management manual, was never going to make Sterling anything other than an ostracised outsider. The last man in the bomb squad.

By my calculation, Sterling has earned around £54million gross, before tax and bonuses in his bleak three years in west London, which is the equivalent to around £650,000 per game. Some might view him with disdain because of this but I do not begrudge him one penny. 

The evidence of the time Sterling spent on loan at Arsenal last year tells us that at the very least he is a positive, mentoring force among young players

Chelsea have been shortsighted, driving down Sterling’s value by marginalising him

Chelsea were the ones who threw that money at him and then treated him disgracefully. They are also the ones who have managed to drive down his value by marginalising him. 

Sterling has been more than willing to take a substantial drop in pay to begin his career again at a club where he would be valued and, still only 31, might play. Chelsea have not pulled up trees to bring him such a move.

They’ve left it very late again. We are in the dying days of another transfer window and they are again trying to move him on, with the preference being a sale, though the termination of his contract or a loan move has not been ruled out. Paying out the final 18 months of his deal in full would cost them £22million. 

An absolute fortune in your world or mine. Small change for the geniuses at Clearlake, custodians of a football club who are 13 points off the top of the Premier League and barely make the cut as the second best club in London.