It is fair to say that Chelsea’s 2022-2023 season was a fascinating one, being the first under the new ownership of Todd Boehly and therefore the first campaign since 2002-2003 that Roman Abramovich was not the club’s owner. That wasn’t the only first, with the 2022-2023 season also being the first time in the club’s existence that there were four different managers charged with guiding the club to success. Success was, sadly, a word that was hard to come by for Chelsea during the campaign, however. The club finished 12th in the Premier League, were knocked out of the FA Cup and the League Cup in the third round and made it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
It was that Champions League performance that offered a glimmer of hope to supporters, who had grown used to the club being involved in the biggest matches since Abramovich had bought the club two decades before. In fact, the 12th place finish in the Premier League was their worst finish since the 1993-1994 campaign, when they finished 14th. Chelsea had only failed to finish in the top four three times since Abramovich bought the club, so it wasn’t a season that will be remembered with much fondness by the majority of Chelsea supporters. They saw the club score just 38 goals and win 44 points during the campaign.
Transfers
If there was one thing that Chelsea fans did have a chance to talk about during what was an otherwise miserable season then it was transfers. There were some big names that joined the club, with Raheem Sterling arriving from defending champions Manchester City for a fee of £47.5 million. It was the summer of Todd Boehly taking advantage of the way that the amortisation of contracts worked, signing players up for huge sums of money over stupidly long contract. That was perhaps best demonstrated by the club signing Wesley Fofana on a seven-year contract for an amount that could go up to £75 million.
Transfers In
Here is a look at all of the players that Chelsea signed in the summer of 2022 and winter of 2023, complete with the club that they were signed from and the amount that was paid, if known:
| Player | Signed From | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Eddie Beach | Southampton | Undisclosed |
| Raheem Sterling | Manchester City | £47.5 million |
| Kalidou Koulibaly | Napoli | £33 million |
| Omari Hutchinson | Arsenal | Free Transfer |
| Gabriel Slonina | Chicago Fire | £8.1 million |
| Carney Chukwuemeka | Aston Villa | £20 million |
| Zak Sturge | Brighton & Hove Albion | £60 million |
| Marc Cucurella | Brighton & Hove Albion | £60 million |
| Tyler Dibling | Southampton | £1.7 million |
| Cesare Casadei | Inter Milan | £16.8 million |
| Wesley Fofana | Leicester City | £75 million |
| Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Barcelona | £10.3 million |
| Benoît Badiashile | Monaco | £35 million |
| David Datro Fofana | Molde | £10 million |
| Andrey Santos | Vasco da Gama | £18 million |
| Mykhailo Mudryk | Shakhtar Donetsk | £62 million |
| Noni Madueke | PSV Eindhoven | £29 million |
| Malo Gusto | Lyon | £26.3 million |
| Enzo Fernández | Benfica | £106.7 million |
| Jimmy Jay Morgan | Southampton | £3 million |
On top of those signings, Chelsea also brought in Denis Zakaria from Juventus on loan, paying a fee of £2.7 million to do so, as well as loaning João Felix from Atlético Madrid for a £9.7 million.
Transfers Out
It is fair to say that Chelsea spent an outrageous amount of money during Todd Boehly’s first full season in charge, seeing nearly £650 million going out of the club’s coffers for new players. The question therefore is, did they get much money in from player sales?
| Player | Sold To | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Antonio Rüdiger | Real Madrid | Free Transfer |
| Andreas Christensen | Barcelona | Free Transfer |
| George McEachran | Swindon Town | Released |
| Thierno Ballo | Wolfsberger | Released |
| Karlo Žiger | Gorica | Free Transfer |
| Jake Clarke-Salter | Queens Park Rangers | Free Transfer |
| Charly Musonda | Levante | Released |
| George Nunn | Derby County | Free Transfer |
| Josh Tobin | Cray Wanderers | Free Transfer |
| Matt Miazga | FC Cincinnati | Free Transfer |
| Timo Werner | RB Leipzig | £25.3 million |
| Edwin Andersson | Stoke City | Free Transfer |
| Emerson | West Ham United | £15 million |
| Luke Badley-Morgan | Stoke City | Free Transfer |
| Ross Barkley | Nice | Released |
| Marcos Alonso | Barcelona | Free Transfer |
| Billy Gilmour | Brighton & Hove Albion | £10 million |
| Tyler Dibbing | Southampton | Undisclosed |
| Xavier Mbuyamba | Volendam | Undisclosed |
| Kenedy | Valladolid | £500,000 |
| Michy Batshuayi | Fernerbahçe | £3.5 million |
| Alex Kpakpé | Rangers | Released |
| Jude Soonsup-Bell | Tottenham Hotspur | Free Transfer |
| Jorginho | Arsenal | £12 million |
The out-goings amounted to around £64 million, with as many as 30 players going out on loan between the summer and winter transfer windows. Of those, around £3.5 million was brought in in fees.
2022-2023 Chelsea Squad
Thanks to such a busy period in the transfer market, the Chelsea squad was quite bloated for the 2022-2023 campaign. Here is a look at the players that could reasonably be described as being in the club’s first-team squad:
| Player | Number | Country | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edouard Mendy | 16 | Senegal | Goalkeeper |
| Kepa Arrizabalaga | 1 | Spain | Goalkeeper |
| Benoît Badiashile | 4 | France | Centre-Back |
| Thiago Silva | 6 | Braazil | Centre-Back |
| Trevor Chalobah | 14 | England | Centre/Right-Back, Defensive Midfield |
| Ben Chilwell | 21 | England | Left-Back |
| Reece James | 24 | England | Right-Back |
| Kalidou Koulibaly | 26 | Senegal | Centre-Back |
| César Azpilicueta | 28 | Spain | Right-Back |
| Marc Cucurella | 32 | Spain | Left-Back |
| Wesley Fofana | 33 | France | Centre-Back |
| Enzo Fernández | 5 | Argentina | Defensive Midfield |
| N’Golo Kante | 7 | France | Defensive Midfield |
| Mateo Kovačić | 8 | Croatia | Defensive Midfield |
| Ruben Loftus-Cheek | 12 | England | Midfield |
| Mason Mount | 19 | England | Midfield |
| Denis Zakaria | 20 | Switzerland | Midfield |
| Conor Gallagher | 23 | England | Midfield |
| Carney Chukwuemeka | 30 | England | Midfield |
| Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | 9 | Gabon | Forward |
| Christian Pulisic | 10 | United States of America | Forward |
| João Félix | 11 | Portugal | Forward |
| Mykhailo Mudryk | 15 | Ukraine | Forward |
| Raheem Sterling | 17 | England | Forward |
| Armando Broja | 18 | Albania | Striker |
| Hakim Ziyech | 22 | Morocco | Forward |
| David Datro Fofana | 27 | Ivory Coast | Striker |
| Kai Havertz | 29 | Germany | Forward |
Kit & Sponsor
Chelsea played the 2022-2023 season in their usual colour of blue for the home strip, which was manufactured by Nike and sponsored by the mobile phone company 3.
The away kit for the campaign was white, with thin blue strips running across the middle of it. The third kit, meanwhile, was officially referred to as being ‘sesame’ in colour; though most people would probably say it was a caucasian skin tone.
The goalkeeper kit for the 2022-2023 season was bright orange. The away kit, third kit and goalkeeper’s kit were, as with the first-time kit, manufactured by Nike and sponsored by 3.