Let’s say the billionaire buyers scrabble together to pay £1bn in cash of their own. There’s still £2.5bn in loans being raised. Even at only 3% interest, that’s £75m a year in debt service alone. Then there are repayments. Across a 25-year term, that’s another £100m a year.

— Matt Scott (@Matt5cott) May 4, 2022

If you want to build a stadium (which you really, really do), you’re in for another £1.5bn at least. That costs £22.5m in debt service and £30m in repayments. It’s cheaper debt because it’s collateralised against a fixed asset and across a longer term.

— Matt Scott (@Matt5cott) May 4, 2022

But we’re sitting at a £227.5m-a-year commitment from a Chelsea leveraged buyout. Under Abramovich, Chelsea have typically generated £1.6m a year in cash, net. A new stadium would add probably £80m a year. Winning the CL brings in £70m more.

— Matt Scott (@Matt5cott) May 4, 2022

But even if you win it every year in a shiny new stadium you’d still be £75m+ in the hole every single year before you’ve spent a single dollar cent on transfer fees. All this means only one thing is for sure…

— Matt Scott (@Matt5cott) May 4, 2022

… A Chelsea sale would be one step closer to a European Super League and one more - probably decisive - nail in the coffin of the traditional football pyramid.

— Matt Scott (@Matt5cott) May 4, 2022