Emiliano Martínez, better known as El Dibu, is Chelsea’s new goalkeeper. Aston Villa have sold him to the Blues for just over €8.5 million, a remarkably low fee by Premier League standards. And yet the deal has raised a few eyebrows in the UK. Martínez’s move makes it eight transfers between Aston Villa and Chelsea in the space of four years. It is a striking number, and it covers business in both directions. Since 2022, Chelsea have spent just over €190 million on Carney Chukwuemeka, Omari Kellyman, Morgan Rogers and, now, Martínez. In the opposite direction, Ian Maatsen, Axel Disasi, Alejandro Garnacho and Nico Jackson have moved from Chelsea to Villa for a total of €120 million in fees, potentially rising to €175 million if the conditions for Garnacho’s permanent transfer are met. For now, he is there on loan.
So what is behind the questions raised by the English media, the BBC above all? Both Aston Villa and Chelsea have finances that are, to put it mildly, in poor shape. Both clubs have been investigated by the Premier League and UEFA’s financial control bodies. The suspicion is that these transfers – all involving fees – have also served to generate revenue and improve the clubs’ accounts. The first of the eight deals, after all, came in 2022, when the American investment firm BlueCo took over from Roman Abramovich as Chelsea’s majority shareholder. Aston Villa, too, are American-owned. The BBC reported that a source within the Premier League said several club executives had raised concerns about the frequency of the transactions.
There is, of course, no way to prove that anything illicit lies behind these transfers, and there may never be. The transfer market is a largely unregulated business; clubs are private entities, free to negotiate – or not – with whoever they choose. Then there is a broader feature of the Premier League that has become increasingly pronounced: its financial power has created a market in which English clubs, in practice, prefer to do business mainly with one another. It is hardly surprising. These clubs have so much money, and are so far beyond the reach of any non-elite club elsewhere, that certain fees are realistic only within the domestic market.