There are no two ways about it, Chelsea could potentially be in trouble over the next few years. With Roman Abramovich seemingly losing interest in the club, a transfer ban currently in place and a novice manager in charge, there could be some upheaval over the next couple of seasons. 

The transfer ban is the most troubling aspect right at this moment, after losing Eden Hazard we have big shoes to fill. He wasn’t just the top goal provider for us last season, he was the top goal provider in the whole of the league. 

It’s unfair to expect Pulisic to come in and offer similar levels in his first season in the league. That means that the rest of the team will need to step up and do something special this year if we want to maintain our place near the top of the table. 

It’s not just missing out on the Champion’s League that could be an issue, we could potentially miss out on the Europa League if we struggle to negate the loss of Hazard.

This will undoubtedly lead to a drop in revenue if it happens and we need to look at ways to try and bridge that gap. In fact, even if we do finish in the top four, we should be looking at ways to bridge the revenue gap anyway. Man City, Liverpool and Man United all generate significantly more revenue that we do across all of their business dealings, which automatically puts us on the back foot in terms of competing for transfers. There are ways to generate more revenue for the football club that don’t hit the fans in the pocket, but it’s something that the traditional big six in the Premier League have all failed to look at just yet.

Gambling companies and casinos are starting to advertise within football in a big way. You only have to look at teams like Crystal Palace  and Aston Villa, who are with all due respect smaller clubs than Chelsea, generating record levels of revenue for their clubs with casino firms. Casinos are now attempting to get into the football sponsorship market and being an effective way to promote their business to millions, it would make sense for Chelsea to become the first team in the big six to offer them the chance of increasing our revenue. Our deal with Yokohama Tyres is currently the lowest paying of the big six, to be the first big six team to offer our shirt would mean we could feasibly break the amount than Man City and Man United are currently paid.

This would allow us to bridge the gap in revenue and when our transfer ban is lifted we could hopefully replace our lost talent with players of a similar standard to Hazard. While the transfer ban may seem like a negative at the moment, the lower spending this season, combined with the Hazard transfer fee and increased revenue could see us really go for it in the transfer market over the next few seasons.