Chelsea owner Todd Boehly can raise £145m to fund two huge signings

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly may be able to raise around £145million to bankroll the signings of Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo and Inter Milan defender Denzel Dumfries before the January transfer window draws to a close. The west Londoners have already spent in excess of £120m to strengthen their ranks in the mid-season market, with the likes of Mykhaylo Mudryk, Benoit Badiashile and David Datro Fofana among those to have joined the Blues over the last few weeks.

Chelsea have been spending at will ever since Boehly took control of the club towards the end of last season, although the signings of Caicedo and Dumfries have managed to evade them up to now. The former has turned plenty of heads with his impressive performances for Brighton and has been heavily linked with Chelsea in recent months, while Dumfries is thought to be a long-term target and would provide the Blues with excellent injury cover for Reece James, who has struggled to stay fit over the course of the campaign to date.

Both deals could prove to be hugely expensive for Chelsea, though, with Brighton reportedly demanding around £75m for Caicedo’s signature as a result of their lack of financial pressure to sell. Inter, meanwhile, are holding out for at least £53m in order to let go of Dumfries, according to Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport.

These figures would see Chelsea needing to fork out a combined total of around £128m to sign both players, although they could do so with plenty of change to spare by selling four of their current players for decent transfer fees. Several members of their squad have either fallen out of favour or have been linked with moves elsewhere over the last few weeks, with Chelsea able to capitalise by raising some extra funds in preparation for a hectic end to the January window.

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One player with the ability to raise plenty of money for Chelsea is Raheem Sterling, who has recently been mentioned in connection with possible moves to Arsenal or Barcelona despite only joining the Blues at the start of the current season. The England ace is valued by Transfermarkt at £70m, which would be a welcome boost for Chelsea if they can somehow make such a healthy profit on the £47.5m fee they paid to sign him from Manchester City last summer.

No takers have been forthcoming for Sterling as of yet, but any deal to sell the 28-year-old for close to his market value would undoubtedly help the Blues in their efforts to land Caicedo and Dumfries before the end of this month. They could also be tempted to cash in on the services of out-of-favour goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, who has lost his first-choice status to Kepa Arrizabalaga this season and is given a valuation of £25m by Transfermarkt.

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The Senegal international would likely have no shortage of clubs keen on a move for his signature at that price, while Chelsea may also be able to raise another £50m by selling Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Hakim Ziyech for the same amount as Mendy. Loftus-Cheek has started in 12 league games this season but would be directly replaced and upgraded if Caicedo joins the club, making his exit a no-brainer if it would facilitate the Brighton playmaker’s arrival in west London.

Ziyech, meanwhile, has struggled to fit in at Chelsea over the last couple of seasons and has been widely tipped to leave in the not-too-distant future amid links with Newcastle United. He remains tied down until the summer of 2025 as things stand, which suggests that Chelsea could feasibly sell for around the £25m mark if not more between now and the end of the January window rather than keeping him on their books when he is clearly not rated too highly at Stamford Bridge.

These four sales would have the potential to raise a collective total of around £145m if things go well, which would give Chelsea enough money to sign Caicedo and Dumfries at their respective asking prices with change to spare. However, it remains to be seen if Boehly will be open to conducting such a large-scale overhaul this month or if he would prefer to wait until the end of the season to pursue any more big-money additions to Graham Potter’s squad.

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