The sale of Angelo to Al-Nassr is significant for Chelsea as it edges the club towards balancing the books.
The Blues will receive nearly £6m profit on the fee paid to Santos last summer, to take the overall total for player sales to £188.9m.
If money banked from loan fees and sell-on clauses were also publicly disclosed and included, the total is likely more than £200m.
That balances out the £208.5m spent on buying 11 players, not including Genk goalkeeper Mike Penders and Palmeiras winger Estavao Willian, who will join in 2025.
Although Chelsea’s approach is chaotic – as one of the busiest clubs in the transfer market every summer under this new Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital ownership – it can be both profitable and highlight that there is indeed a plan.
That plan is to sign young players who haven’t maximised their value and either wait for them to develop into first team players or be ruthless in flipping them for a quick profit if need be.
The mere association with Chelsea is believed by many within the club to raise the value of players while they also have Strasbourg, where Angelo spent last season, as a place to send players on loan before they are sold.
Eyebrows were raised when Chelsea signed Angelo, an out of form winger struggling to break into his team in Brazil in 2023, but these figures highlight the prospect of profit as a reason to sign so many young players.