Chelsea have announced that none of their first-team players will be taking the much-talked-about pay cuts and neither will their full-time staff be furloughed.
Arsenal were the first big club in the Premier League to announce that their players have agreed to take a 12.5% pay cut for the rest of the year and Chelsea were expected to follow suit. But now via an official statement, the Stamford Bridge outfit have made it clear that their players will not be taking cuts but instead have been urged to contribute towards various charities.
The statement read from the club read, via Goal: “Representatives of the Chelsea board have recently held extensive talks with the men’s first team to discuss how they can contribute financially to the club during the coronavirus crisis.
“The objective of these talks has been to find a meaningful partnership around ensuring we preserve jobs for staff, compensate fans and participate in activities for good causes.
“We are grateful to the team for having played their role in assisting the club with community activities as well as all the charitable causes they have been supporting in their respective home countries and through the Players Together initiative supporting the NHS.
“At this time, the men’s first team will not be contributing towards the club financially and instead the board have directed the team to focus their efforts on further supporting other charitable causes.
“As this crisis develops the club will continue to have conversations with the men’s first team regarding financial contributions to the club’s activities.”
Chelsea to spend major money this summer?
This is surely a very sensible move from Chelsea since Arsenal have faced a lot of criticism over the past couple of days over this decision, primarily because they are such a rich club.
But this u-turn from Chelsea also means they are planning to spend big during the upcoming transfer window.
The club have obviously understood that the decision to bring in big money transfers during the summer will stick out like a sore thumb in case they ask their players to take pay cut and there’s also a probability of revolt inside the dressing room.
So we assume to negate all these issues, the London outfit have chosen to backtrack on their decision so that they can splurge with open arms at the end of the season.
Chelsea are expected to bring in a large number of new signings during the summer, including players like Philippe Coutinho and possibly a new goalkeeper like Nick Pope.
