Champions League: Salzburg in the European top flight, only penultimate Chelsea

When Chelsea meet Salzburg at home on Wednesday (21:00, Servus TV, Sky and DAZN live), the “Blues” will once again live up to their name. A color other than blue hasn’t been an option for the Londoners’ home jersey since it was founded – although red jerseys would be more suitable this season, last summer’s transfer budget shows a big drawback of over 220. million euros.

Because not a single club in the global football cosmos spent more money on new players over the summer. Despite the spring economic crisis surrounding Roman Abramowitsch, people went shopping at Stamford Bridge, with commitments from Wesley Fofana (80 million), Marc Cucurella (65 million) and Raheem Sterling (56 million) proving so impressive who the donors are in club football around the world. Since Chelsea sold Timo Werner (20 million), Emerson (15 million) and Billy Gilmour (10 million) at a relatively affordable price, the nearly 60 million in revenue is offset by just € 280 million in expenses. The 2021 Champions League winner could have bought one and a half times the entire squad of today’s opponent Salzburg, which according to transfermarkt.at has a current market value of 174.33 million euros.

Harmful gossip would claim that this would help the blues more. Some signings, such as Pierre Emerick Aubameyang’s from FC Barcelona, ​​have even made diehard Chelsea fans shudder, as the 33-year-old is no longer considered a promising talent for the future. Together with a manageable start in premier class (0-1 v Zagreb) and Premier League (ten points in six games), this has already led to the expulsion of successful manager Thomas Tuchel, which has also caused a lack of understanding among the fans and experts.

Despite the turbulent weeks, the British are clearly the favorites when new manager Graham Potter makes his debut. “Chelsea are an absolute world-class team that (2021) did not win the Champions League by accident. Just look at the squad: they are exceptional individual quality in every position”, says coach Matthias Jaissle, for whom the away match match at Stamford Bridge “a dream come true”. Despite the “Herculean task”, as Jaissle calls the game, the Austrian champions still want to surprise.

However, Salzburg will once again have to do without the injured main duo of Maximilian Wöber and Oumar Solet. In one category, however, Salzburg are way ahead of their overwhelming opponents. Mozart’s citizens received 92 million euros in this summer of transfers, which means a profit of 63 million euros after spending almost 30 million euros. This places them in eighth place in Europe, while Chelsea are next to last, behind only Manchester United.

–

–