MONEY TALKS and Chelsea is no different to any other Premier League club.
The players will receive a bonus if they beat Real Betis next Wednesday and win the Conference League for the first time.
The payments have been set out on a sliding scale depending on appearances which means some of the top stars won’t be paid as much although they’ll hardly go hungry as a result.
And as if we needed reminding of Chelsea’s priorities, if Champions League qualification is achieved at Nottingham Forest this Sunday then the players’ pay packets will be considerably more full.
Cole Palmer was deliberately kept out of Chelsea’s Conference League squad for the first half of the campaign and so has made just five appearances in the competition this season.
Keeper Filip Jorgensen, who has been confirmed as a starter in the final next week, has played 13 times in the tournament.
DESPITE harbouring bigger ambitions than the Conference League, Chelsea fans are flocking to Poland in their thousands to lap up the final.
The club’s official allocation of 12,300 tickets has been gobbled up.
Blues supporters were understandably confident that their billion quid squad would reach the June 28 date in Wroclaw, so many booked hotels and flights weeks, sometimes months in advance.
It’s common practice in the travel industry and can mean saving a decent whack of money by getting in early.
But as is the case in this horrible old world, some of those loyal punters who took a punt on Chelsea going all the way, are now coming unstuck.
We have heard numerous worrying reports that a number of fans are receiving emails from hotels in the city, claiming there has been a ‘technical’ or ‘admin’ error with their initial reservation.
And yes, you guessed it, those issues mean the prices of their accommodation has increased – sometimes tripling the original room rate.
Fans are reluctant to name the hotels but some are fighting back. One supporter, who booked eight rooms in a 3* hotel has been told the cost is now three times what it was.
But the person involved has since found a 5* place that is cheaper! He is keeping the first hotel hanging on and will cancel last minute in the hope they end up losing out altogether.
Unfortunately, there is little the club can do to help frustrated fans.
AND right on time, Uefa has chosen this week to publish its latest call for fans to avoid ‘unofficial’ ticket agencies as next week’s final draws closer.
The directive reads: “UEFA warns fans not to purchase tickets on the secondary market, from unauthorised third parties, websites, agencies or from touts.
“Such tickets may be cancelled by UEFA at any time and fans are likely to be refused entry or be ejected from the stadium. In addition, fans may not receive the tickets which they have purchased from these unauthorised third parties.
“UEFA reminds fans that ticket sales to the general public and fans of the teams who have reached the UEFA club competition finals are carried out exclusively via UEFA.com.”
All well and good but as we know, Chelsea’s own chairman Todd Boehly has his fingers buried deep in this pie with his stake in US ticket resale site Vivid Seats.
Supporters are already on the club’s case over how so many fans of Swedish side Djurgarden were able to buy seats in the home end of Stamford Bridge for the Conference League semi-final second leg. Awkward.
REECE James’ position at Chelsea was called into question last week, with Romeo Lavia back fit, Chelsea’s abundance of midfield options, and Moises Caicedo seeming to take up his spot in Enzo Maresca’s favourite starting XI.
But the Blues’ captain showed that he’s not going anywhere vs Man Utd, back in the side at right-back and stealing the show with an incredible spin and cross to set up fellow full-back Marc Cucurella.
Enzo Maresca said previously that he sees Reece as a midfielder, as he was used on loan at Wigan Athletic, rather than a marauding right-back as he has always been at Chelsea.
Questions over James have never been over his ability, but his fitness, and against Manchester United he completed 90 minutes in the Premier League for only the second time since November 2024.
What’s more, this season he’s played a part in 21 games since January, a consistent run for his side and is proving that he has a key part to play in this side.
If he can keep this up, he can surely establish himself as one of the best in the world in his position once more and work his way back into Thomas Tuchel’s England setup.
His versatility in Maresca’s system could make him a key cog in this Chelsea machine, with his ability to be a danger out wide and in the middle allowing the Italian gaffer to remain unpredictable and adapt to different game states at different times.
Reece is deserving of a start away to Nottingham Forest, a fixture in which he got the match-winning assist on the final day of last season.
MOISES Caicedo was named Chelsea’s player of the season last week, and wonderkid Kendry Paez is touted to be a star player for the Blues in seasons to come.
Ecuadorian greatness could become a common theme at Stamford Bridge.
Caicedo and Paez were both academy graduates of Independiente Del Valle in Ecuador, and this could be somewhere BlueCo continues to shop in the coming transfer windows.
Independiente have also produced PSG star defender Willian Pacho, and invincible Bayer Leverkusen centre-back Piero Hincapie, both of whom have previously been linked with a move to Stamford Bridge.
Ecuador was perhaps for too long a nation with heaps of untapped potential, with Brighton reaping the rewards of building a link with the South American nation, signing talents such as Pervis Estupinian, Caicedo and Jeremy Sarmiento.
With Chelsea appointing Brighton’s transfer guru Sam Jewell last year, don’t be surprised to see The Blues do more summer shopping in Sangolquí in the upcoming window.
WITH two games to go in Ligue 1, and having just beaten Paris St. Germain, BlueCo-owned Strasbourg looked destined for European football, with a dream of playing in the Champions League very much alive.
However, Chelsea’s sister club went and bottled it.
After the PSG match, they took on Angers and Le Havre, the teams who finished just outside of the relegation zone in 14th and 15th place, and lost both…
That means the French side finished 7th place in Ligue 1, outside of any European spot, including the Conference League, which Chelsea may be about to win.
And it hasn’t gone unnoticed by sceptical Blues fans amid all sorts of conspiracy theories.
Were Strasbourg to end up in the same competition as Chelsea then it could massively affect this summer’s transfer market with trading between the two BlueCo stablemates banned.
Given Chelsea could virtually fill Stamford Bridge with the amount of young players they have sent to Strasbourg on loan that would be a bit of an issue.
Of course, it’s all just cynical, light-hearted and nobody really thinks it’s an intra-club carve up.
And Liam Rosenior’s men DO still have a chance to play in Europe next campaign.
If PSG can get the better of Reims in the Coupe De France final on Saturday, then Lyon (who finished in 6th will be upgraded from a Conference League play-off spot and into the Europa League, meaning Strasbourg will take their place in the play-offs.
Last time the two sides met, they shared a point each, but with PSG on the cusp of a potential treble they will surely not take this game lightly.
REAL BETIS against Chelsea is a reunion of sorts.
The two clubs met in the last eight of the now-defunct Cup Winners Cup in 1998.
Chelsea won 3-1 with Blues legend Gianfranco Zola having the last word.
The team sheet is a historian’s dream: Ed de Goey in goal, Dennis Wise in midfield along with Roberto di Matteo – he would later achieve the ultimate and win Chelsea’s first Champions League trophy as manager in 2012 – and was sacked the following November.
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