Author: Adam

Chelsea’s latest filing to Companies House shows that the football club’s wage bill went up by £25 million in the year ending 30th of June 2015.

The increase, which took the club’s wage bill from £190 million to £215.6 million, means that Chelsea currently have the highest wage bill of any club in the Premier League. The nearest competitors to Chelsea were Manchester United, whose wage bill came out at £203 million, and Manchester City’s, whose wage bill was £193.8 million. Chelsea’s London rivals Arsenal revealed that their wage bill is the fourth largest in the country at £192 million.

In the 2014-2015 season Chelsea won both the League Cup and the Premier League title, so the news regarding the wage bill seems to confirm a long held belief by football’s financial experts that the team with the highest wage bill will win the league more often than not.

The information regarding the wage bill does not reveal the split of how much money was spent on player’s wages and how much was spent on backroom staff and those that maintain the ground itself. What is revealed is that the club made a profit of £42 million that season thanks to the sale of players such as Ryan Bertrand to Southampton, Andre Schurrle to Wolfsburg and Romelu Lukaku to Everton. Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole also left during the 2014-2015 season.

The club’s accounts also happened to reveal that it had made a pre-tax loss of £22.6 million. That compares poorly to a £19 million profit from the previous year. The club themselves claim that turnover fell by £5.5 million to £319 million because the broadcasting revenue from the Champion’s League dropped after they got knocked out of the competition by Paris Saint Germain.

The difference in profit will also have been in no small part due to the arrival of new players, such as Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa and the return of Didier Drogba for his second spell at the club.

Chelsea’s interim manager, Guus Hiddink, has told the press that there wasn’t much to a reported bust-up between two of the club’s star players, Oscar and Diego Costa.

Reports emerged from the newspaper The Telegraph that the two players had had to be separated after an ‘outrageous challenge’ from the Brazilian, Oscar, on Costa during a training match. The 24-year-old took to Twitter to deny the incident, saying, “For those who are talking to me and @diegocosta struggle today in training he’s lying, he’s one of my best friends and never fight ;)”.

Hiddink has admitted there was a coming together, however. He said, “Oscar apologised in front of the group and they all started laughing, jokes were made”. The bust-up came as the defending Premier League champions prepared to begin their assault on this season’s FA Cup with a match against League One side Scunthorpe on Sunday.

Dutchman Hiddink arrived at Stamford Bridge in December last year after the departure of the club’s former manager, Jose Mourinho. It is the second time that he has come in midway through the season as he also did so in 2009 when Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich decided to sack then manager Luis Felipe Scolari.

Hiddink led the Blues to an FA Cup triumph that season and would like to repeat the feat this time around, so he was keen to play down the significance of the incident between two of his charges. In his pre-match press conference before the 3rd round game he said, “It’s a pity that our photographer had a day off or he could have shot beautiful pictures from the two. They were jesting a bit after a charge from behind from the smaller of the two, Oscar. Costa took a charge from behind and it was overdone, especially when you know Oscar is not the biggest tackler of the team. They stumbled over the ground, stood up, as a normal reaction, they jested a bit, but we came in between them to say that there was no need to hit each other. Those things happen when you’re close on the edge. Oscar apologised for over-reacting, then they looked at each other and started laughing. It was a normal battle”.

Chelsea have had a troubled season so far, lying in 14th place after a terrible start to the campaign under former manager Mourinho. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ lost nine league games and saw his side knocked out of the League Cup by Stoke City before Abramovich decided to step in and ask Hiddink to get the club’s season back on track. Rumours of the bust-up at the club’s Cobham training ground making it into the press are unlikely to improve the owner’s mood.

Chelsea’s former club doctor, Eva Carneiro, has appeared at an employment tribunal that will hear evidence regarding her constructive dismissal case against her former employers.

Carneiro is reportedly suing the defending Premier League champions for constructive dismissal and breach of contract, with the preliminary hearing on the case taking place yesterday at the London South Employment Tribunal, Croydon.

The case stems from when the club’s then manager, Jose Mourinho, called Carneiro and Chelsea’s physio, Jon Fearn, ‘impulsive and naive’ for running on to the pitch towards the end of Chelsea’s opening game of the season at Stamford Bridge. The Blues were already down to 10 men during the match against Swansea City after their goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, had been sent off for a foul on the Swans’ striker Bafetimbi Gomis. Eden Hazard then seemed to be in some physical discomfort after a tackle left him prone on the turf.

The match referee, Michael Oliver, called Chelsea’s medical staff onto the pitch several times before they responded, running on to give Hazard treatment under the referee’s instruction. According to the rules the Belgian then had to leave the pitch temporarily, leaving the home team with nine players.

In the aftermath of the game Carneiro found that her role was ‘downgraded’, meaning that she was not allowed on the Chelsea bench for the club’s next game against Manchester City. She was also not allowed to be around the Chelsea training sessions, though she could still deal with members of the first-team.

In September last year it was announced that Carneiro had left Chelsea, then on the 30th of the month the Football Association announced that they had cleared Jose Mourinho of making discriminatory comments and confirmed that they would not be taking any disciplinary action against the Portuguese manager. In October Carneiro expressed her disappointment at this decision and confirmed that the FA had at no point asked to speak to her about Mourinho’s comments, including the fact that he appeared to call her a ’filho da puto’, which translates from Portuguese to being ‘son of a bitch’.

The claim against Chelsea was lodged by Carneiro’s lawyers in late October 2015, with the Queen’s Council representing Carneiro confirming yesterday that no settlement had been reached with the club and that a date has been fixed for the next hearing. In November last year Carneiro also lodged a separate, yet connected, legal claim against Mourinho himself.

In December Chelsea decided to sack the 52 year old manager, replacing him on and interim basis with Dutchman Guus Hiddink. Some members of the press claimed that part of the reason Mourinho lost the support of his dressing room was due to his treatment of Carneiro, someone that the players had a lot of respect for. More details will no doubt emerge on the case in the coming weeks.