Chelsea’s 10 biggest spending sprees: £153.35m & £91.1m transfer hauls caused trophy room congestion

Chelsea are the Premier League’s major money men.

Situated in posh West London, it is no surprise that the Blues are notorious for splashing the cash.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003, but they spent a fair bit before his reign began.

Here, we look at Chelsea’s top 10 seasons in the Premier League era based on net spending…

10. 1997/98 – £9.9m

Graeme Le Saux – £7m – and Pierluigi Casiraghi – £5.4m – were the big buys this season, although the £300,000 spent on Tore-Andre Flo was the wisest purchase by a long way. The sales of Craig Burley and Danny Granville – for a combined total of £4.1m helped to keep the net spend below £10m.

9. 2009/10 – £17.5m

Yuri Zhirkov’s £18m arrival was the biggest splash, while Daniel Sturridge and Nemanja Matic – both of whom were eventually sold for a major profit – signed for transfer fees of £4m and £1.5m respectively. Claudio Pizarro – £5m – and Ben Sahar – £1m – were the only sales with disclosed transfer fees.

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