13 Aug 2026 15:54 BST |
4 min read
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BlueCo’s transfer policy at Chelsea might not have too many vocal supporters, but the owners of the Premier League club are set to pull off another masterstroke at the expense of one of their rivals.
Chelsea have been criticised for having been run too much like a business and too little like a football club in recent seasons, with BlueCo’s policy to buy promising young players on the cheap to sell them at profit.
This has been even more pronounced at sister club Strasbourg, and the Blues’ excellence at this art form has been exemplified in a couple of deals they are conducting at present, with Ipswich Town the unwitting victims.
Chelsea are turning bad buys into big profits
Chelsea signed Liam Delap from Ipswich in a €35.5 million (£30m) deal last summer. While he had shone with the Tractor Boys, there is little argument that his subsequent move to Stamford Bridge has been nothing short of a disaster.
The 23-year-old struggled for game time last season, scoring just two goals across all competitions last term. Indeed, he had twice as many yellow cards.
And despite a campaign that was little short of a footballing catastrophe, the Blues are primed to sell him on at a profit – and a sizeable one at that.
Amid growing interest from Premier League rivals, Chelsea have put an asking price of €58.5m (£50m) on his head, The Standard reports.
So what was on the face of things a bad buy is looking increasingly likely to turn the BlueCo-owned side a profit of more than €20m.
Now, it’s worth pointing out here that the Blues triggered a release clause on Delap’s Ipswich contract, which artificially kept his price low. They may not, however, have bought at a bigger price given that Delap’s Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) sat at €33m last summer – a figure that he continues to hover around.
What happens when Ipswich buy from BlueCo?
In a reversal of last season’s Delap deal Ipswich are now seeking to buy from BlueCo, albeit Strasbourg rather than Chelsea.
Here, too, the ownership group spearheaded by Todd Boehly has the upper hand. Having bought Delap low from the Norfolk side to sell him high, they are now ready to sell Ipswich Julio Enciso at a premium price.
The attacker, who had a promising six months at Portman Road during their last stint in the Premier League, is on the verge of returning to the club. They are going to be asked to pay a massive premium on the 22-year-old, though.
AlsaSport reports that BlueCo will sell the Paraguay attacker for €35m – a price that is nearly twice his ETV of €20.7m.
Although Strasbourg are under financial pressure from UEFA to sell, it appears that Gary O’Neil’s side are ready to buckle under Racing’s demands.
Chelsea’s transfer strategy is starting to pay off
Whether buying or selling, BlueCo seem to have got a measure of a transfer that makes smart business sense. It’s how they ‘ve managed to push Ipswich around in two transfer deals over the course of the last two years, extracting a profit of €20m from Delap and selling Enciso for around €15m more than he’s valued.
BlueCo have therefore gleaned €35m from these two deals with Ipswich, but while it’s clear they have mastered this aspect of the transfer window, fans will really only be impressed when Chelsea start winning things.
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