Matt Law predicts “very, very difficult” transfer window ahead for Chelsea who can’t raise money through Jackson sale | OneFootball

Chelsea’s punishment from UEFA for breaking financial rules seemed pretty harmless at the time – a fine and two summer windows of restrictions on spending after a settlement.

But as time goes by, it becomes clear how damaging those restrictions are, especially for a team like Chelsea who are constantly trying to make money through player trading.

Restrictions set to damage Chelsea for years

UEFA logo.

Matt Law explained it all on the London is Blue podcast this morning:

“The one that makes life very difficult for next summer is having to balance the incomings to the players registered to the European squad with the outgoing,” the Chelsea insider said.

“If you were to look at who is their biggest sellable asset to raise money to sign players for next season, and the easiest to sell, I’d say Nicolas Jackson. But Nicolas Jackson isn’t in their Champions League squad this season. So even if they sell Nicolas Jackson, he will not count, because it has to be balanced against players who were in their squad.

“So if they sell Jackson, if they sell Raheem Sterling, if they sell Axel Disasi, they’re not going to count. To bring players in next summer, they’re going to have to trade again…. it’s going to make next summer very, very difficult.”

Chelsea will endure more damaging turnover if they want to make squad stronger

What that guarantees is that first team players from this season who have to go. The valuable assets they have on loan elsewhere can be sold, but to comply with UEFA rules only players they’re currently using will count towards their spending limit.

It’s been a big problem this season – the churn of first team players coming in and out and preventing any real chemistry developing. Now it’s becoming clear that that issue isn’t going anywhere.