Chelsea struck gold selling Lampard flop who was ‘one of the world’s best’

Since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took over at Chelsea, there has been a lot made about their spending, with many pundits talking about their “1.2bn spent“, and criticising the Blues transfer model that has undergone a rebrand since the new ownership took charge.

However, they have also sold many players, bringing in an astronomical amount of income from player sales. In fact, two of their summer windows (2023/24 & 2024/25) since the new owners took over, are ranked in the top ten for “biggest incomes from player sales in a single transfer window for English clubs“.

According to Transfermarkt, €271.30m (£224.1m) was the fee Chelsea recouped from player sales in the 2023/24 summer window, with plenty of big names leaving the club in order for the Blues to kickstart their rebuild, replacing them with younger talents from around the world.

Chelsea’s 2023/24 summer window

The Blues spent around £383m in the 2023/24 summer window, bringing 12 new players to the club, including Moises Caicedo, Roméo Lavia, Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson. Of course, spending this amount of money in one transfer window attracted a lot of attention, especially the £115m fee for Caicedo, joining from Brighton.

However, the reason they were able to spend such a high amount of money was due to the recouped fees from player sales, with 14 players leaving permanently, and four leaving the club on loan (with small fees involved).

One of the biggest sales, and most surprising given the context of his Chelsea career beforehand, was Mason Mount, who joined Manchester United for a fee of around £55m. The English midfielder made 195 appearances for the Blues, scoring 33 goals, providing 35 assists and totalling 13,959 minutes played.

Mount was voted as the Chelsea POTY for two seasons in a row (2020/21 and 2021/22), won the Champions League with the club in 2020/21 (providing the winning assist), won the FIFA Club World Cup (2022), and won the UEFA Super Cup (21/22).

Some other Chelsea academy graduates were sold in this window, with Callum Hudson-Odoi (who made 126 appearances for Chelsea) and Ruben Loftus-Cheek (who made 155 appearances for Chelsea) both being sold in this window for relatively low fees.

But the biggest departure of the 2023/24 summer window was none of these names and was instead a player signed back in the 2020/21 season for around £66m, who went on to score one of the most important goals in the club’s history.

Kai Havertz’s time at Chelsea

Kai Havertz joined the Blues in 2020, with Marina Granovskaia stating that “Kai is one of the best players of his age in world football”. At the time, excitement was high for the 21-year-old with many expecting the German to play as an attacking midfielder, ghosting into the box to score goals and providing creativity around the box.

Instead of playing in midfield, Havertz played the majority of his time as a centre-forward at Chelsea, featuring 70 times upfront, 53 times as an attacking midfielder, ten times from the right-wing, and once from the left-wing. In his 139 appearances for the Londoners, the German scored 32 goals and provided 12 assists.

One of those 32 goals was one of Chelsea’s biggest ever, securing a 1-0 victory against Manchester City in the 2020/21 Champions League final to obtain their second Champions League title, the first coming back in the 2011/12 season.

That being said, the German hadn’t worked out for the Blues, not scoring enough to nail down the starting number nine spot for years to come, but also not doing enough to play as one of the creators behind the striker.

This led to his sale in 2023, joining Arsenal for a fee of around £65m, whilst Chelsea went on to secure the signing of new striker, Nicolas Jackson, in a deal worth £32m.

Kai Havertz vs Nicolas Jackson comparison

Since Jackson joined in the 2023/24 summer transfer window, he has made 60 appearances for the Blues, scoring 26 goals, providing nine assists and totalling 4,755 minutes played. Enzo Maresca has made it clear the forward is a key figure for his side, for both his work on and off the ball.

So far this season, the 23-year-old striker has made 16 appearances, scoring nine goals already (all in the Premier League), whilst also providing three assists. In comparison, Havertz has made 23 appearances so far this season, scoring ten times (five in the Premier League) and providing two assists.

Jackson ranks ahead of Havertz in seven of the 11 metrics analysed, creating more for his side in terms of assists and shot-creating actions, having a better conversion rate and shot volume, and, of course, scoring more frequently.

The one area Havertz does stand out is aerially, winning 3.10 aerial duels, using his 6 foot 4 frame to bully defenders and allow Arsenal the chance to play directly. This is something Chelsea are trying to address, by signing another striker profile alongside Jackson, in order to have a broad skillset within their squad.

Chelsea struck gold by selling Havertz at the right time, however, recouping the money they paid for him back in 2020, and reinvesting it into a new forward who has gone from strength to strength since joining.