TODD BOEHLY is on the brink of taking his Chelsea spending on transfers to a staggering £906.8million.
But fans joked that the mega-money side are still set for another poor season.
Boehly bought Chelsea for £4.25billion in May 2022 and wasted no time splashing the cash on new transfers when the window opened.
Nine players signed permanent deals at Stamford Bridge with a further eight stars arriving in West London in January.
And the outrageous spending spree shows no signs of slowing down with another nine new faces confirmed this summer – plus Moises Caicedo will be announced very soon.
The Caicedo deal sees the Blues pay Brighton an eye-watering £115m, a new British transfer record fee.
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That eclipses their own record set in January when they paid Benfica £106m for Enzo Fernandez, although the deal could rise to £110m with add-ons.
The other biggest arrivals over the last year are Raheem Sterling (£47.5m), Marc Cucurella (£62m), Wesley Fofana (£75m), Mykhailo Mudryk (£88m) and Christopher Nkunku (£56m) – again taking into consideration possible extras to supplement the initial costs.
Kalidou Koulibaly, Benoit Badiashile and Noni Madueke all cost £35m with Malo Gusto (£30.7m), Nicolas Jackson (£30m) and debutant goalscorer Axel Disasi (£38m) also joining for big money.
The Blues spent £25m on new goalkeeper Robert Sanchez from Brighton with Edouard Mendy and Kepa Arrizabalaga both leaving through the exit door.
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Gabriel Slonina (£12.6m), Carney Chukwuemeka (£20m), Cesare Casadei (£12m), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£12m), Andrey Santos (£11m), David Fofana (£10.5m), Angela Gabriel (£13m) and Lesley Ugochukwu (£23.5m) all commanded eight-figure transfer fees.
And Jimmy-Jay Morgan (£6m), Ishe Samuels-Smith (£4m) and freebies Alex Matos, Omari Hutchinson and Diego Moreira have also linked up with the Chelsea youth set-up to complete the 26 permanent arrivals in the Boehly era before Caicedo follows.
Dujuan Richards will also arrive from Phoenix Academy in October when the Jamaican striker turns 18.
Koulibaly and Aubameyang have already been sold with striker Fofana, Gabriel, Slonina and Hutchinson all out on loan this term.
Chelsea are now just £93.2m shy of spending £1billion on incoming signings in just three windows – and pipping Liverpool to Romeo Lavia would put them even closer to that landmark figure.
However, the club have generated £1.2bn in sales since 2013-14 – including £208m this season with the likes of Mateo Kovacic, Kai Havertz and Mason Mount leaving.
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But rival supporters are still unsure Boehly’s toy shop spending is guaranteed to translate into success on the pitch.
Mauricio Pochettino’s new side – who have no European football this season – drew 1-1 with Liverpool on the opening weekend of the new campaign and have a favourable run of fixtures.
But one Twitter user joked: “12th position still awaits them.”
Another said: “This is ridiculously ridiculous. It would be a very big shame if they end up not winning all the available trophies this season.”
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A third added: “They now have to win the league to justify that amount of spending as if City or anyone else did, we would all be saying the same. No excuses win the league or it’s a failure.”
And a fourth simply wrote: “This just ridiculous.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk