Exclusive claims Chelsea close to £45m deal after long wait | OneFootball

We’re trying to distract ourselves from a horrific Chelsea result yesterday, so we’re taking a look at some off the field stuff.

Chelsea close in on shirt deal at last

Chelsea’s DAMAC shirt sponsor. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Chelsea’s search for a front of search sponsor has gone on for years now, and has become a total joke. We’ve reported a few times that a deal is close, and nothing has come of it. But this time we really believe it.

This week we saw a lucrative sleeve sponsorship added, and it seems the front of shirt could be next. An exclusive from Football Insider claims that “advanced” talks over a £45m deal are close to concluding.

It’s not clear who we’re in talks with – although Oracle and Red Bull have been mentioned before.

Previous reports were that Chelsea wanted £60m a year, although with a quarter of the season already played now they won’t get that. But they are still hoping for a long term deal that would pay that much for a full year. Unlike last season’s deal with DAMAC which never was intended to be long term, a deal now would take us through the rest of this season and then through several years to come.

There have been moves behind the scenes at Chelsea, with chief revenue officer Casper Stylsvig leaving a month ago and Todd Kline getting a promotion. It seems we’re already seeing the results of that.

In other news…

Chelsea are always looking to sign up talented new players, and the latest to be mentioned is Kees Smit of AZ Alkmaar. We took a look at the rumours around the deal here.

If you really want to look back at the wreckage of the game from Saturday, you can see our analysis of Marc Guiu’s horror show here.