Despite all the noise around the Chelsea ownership, their transfer model, and the recent form of Chelsea, one thing they have successfully achieved is lowering the wage budget drastically.
When they joined, many stars were earning between £200-300k per week, now the Blues only have three players on £200k or more, with many closer to the £80-120k per week figures.
The owners clearly want the players to earn their pay increases and bonuses on merit, as both Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson were rewarded for their superb campaigns in the 2023/24 season, with pay increases.
Chelsea's current wage situation
The current highest earner at Chelsea, excluding Raheem Sterling who is on loan at Arsenal, is Reece James, who is earning a staggering £250k-per-week.
The other two who earn £200k are Ben Chilwell and Wesley Fofana. Whilst some of the lower earners in the senior squad include Noni Madueke on £50k, and Romeo Lavia on £45k.
Newer signings seem to be kept within the £80k to £120k bracket on average, with some earning slightly more, and some earning slightly less. Palmer recently saw his wage increase and is now earning £130k, whilst star striker Jackson also received a salary bump.
Reece James
£250,000
Ben Chilwell
£200,000
Wesley Fofana
£200,000
Christopher Nkunku
£195,000
Enzo Fernández
£180,000
Marc Cucurella
£175,000
João Félix
£170,000
Pedro Neto
£160,000
Moises Caicedo
£150,000
Cole Palmer
£130,000
Chelsea’s midfield pair, which cost over £198m between them, are earning £180k and £150k per week respectively, which is to be expected for their record signings.
However, with many new signings joining on long-term deals, with smaller initial wage packages, the Blues owners have managed to massively decrease the overall wage bill, something they deserve praise for.
Palmer and Madueke form
Two players who have started extremely well under Enzo Maresca and certainly deserve their weekly salaries are Palmer and Noni Madueke.
Both players have an excellent bond on and off the pitch, and it has really started to translate with their performances, especially in the 6-2 thumping against Wolves, where Palmer assisted Madueke three times.
Palmer had a superb first season at the club, making 45 appearances for the Blues, scoring 25 goals and providing 15 assists. He then started the new campaign in this same rich vein of form, scoring six goals and providing five assists in just nine appearances so far.
Madueke, on the other hand, had a stop-start campaign under Pochettino, only making 34 appearances in all competitions, scoring eight goals, providing three assists, and totalling 1,593 minutes.
However, the 22-year-old has been a favourite under the new boss, making eight appearances, scoring five goals.
The England duo are becoming undroppable for Chelsea, forming a connection on that right-hand side, and often finding each other in attacking zones to combine, but there was once a Chelsea star who earned more than the two combined, and many would argue he didn’t perform to those standards.
Romelu Lukaku at Chelsea
Chelsea signed Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan in the summer of 2021 for a whopping £97.5m fee, becoming the club’s record signing.
In his two spells at Chelsea, Lukaku made 59 appearances for the Blues, scoring 15 goals and providing two assists in 3,186 minutes on the pitch.
In his second spell at the club, the Belgian striker was taking home around £325k on a weekly basis and a yearly salary of £16.9m, making him the highest-paid player at the club.
Incredibly, this is more than what Palmer and Madueke are making combined, and after the controversy of his interview, and the little output he offered at the time, this could be one of the worst-value deals of all time.
Lukaku was signed by Thomas Tuchel after Chelsea’s Champions League triumph in a bid to fire them to the top of the Premier League, adding an out-and-out goalscorer upfront, due to the lack of goals in their frontline in the 2020/21 season, with Tammy Abraham and Timo Werner scoring 12 each in all competitions that season.
However, with all the controversy following Lukaku after he said in an interview about returning to Inter Milan just months into his Chelsea return, things quickly spiralled, with the striker being dropped, before being sent on multiple loans, and eventually sold this summer to Napoli for around £25.2m.
“The fact that I hadn’t won anything in England in eight years there bothered me a lot. So it was hard to turn down the chance to come back here with the team I have supported since I was a child.”
Lukaku vs Palmer & Madueke
When you compare the output Lukaku provided in the 2021/22 season for the Blues, considering his sizeable wage package, with the output of both Palmer and Madueke, you can instantly see where the better value is.
Not to mention, the £40m fee paid to Manchester City for Palmer, and the £29m fee paid to PSV for Madueke, is also much less than the £97.5m fee paid for Lukaku, which makes the value even worse.
Goals
0.45
0.91
0.71
Assists
0.00
0.76
0.18
xG
0.41
0.67
0.36
xAG
0.18
0.58
0.21
Progressive Carries
1.60
3.64
5.47
Progressive Passes
1.27
7.12
2.45
Shots Total
2.64
3.48
4.46
Shots on Target
0.94
1.52
1.61
Goals/Shot
0.16
0.22
0.16
Shot-Creating Actions
2.92
5.91
3.02
Touches (Att Pen)
5.94
3.18
6.60
Aerials Won
2.74
0.00
0.57
Of all the metrics analysed above, the only one Lukaku wins is aerial duels won, and this is to be expected considering his 6 foot 3 frame. Output efficiency, shot volume, progressive stats, even touches in the penalty area, are bettered by either one or both of Palmer and Madueke.
This is both a poor reflection on Lukaku’s return to Chelsea and also a positive reflection on how Maresca is getting the best out of Palmer and Madueke as a duo.
Things could have been very different for the Belgian had he not done the interview, maybe becoming the figurehead of Chelsea’s attack. However, the way things went down, it is clearly one of the worst deals in recent history, costing the club around £114m when taking his yearly salary into account.
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