Chelsea have made the biggest transfer profit of all clubs across Europe's top five divisions this season, according to a new report.
Figures from the CIES Football Observatory report into spending over the past two windows show that the Blues had an impressive net spend of €205million (£173.7m), largely thanks to their transfer ban and the sale of Eden Hazard to Real Madrid.
The west Londoners were prevented from signing anyone in the summer window and, despite having their ban reduced, did not bring any new faces in last month. The only deal Chelsea completed across the previous two windows was making the loan signing of Mateo Kovacic permanent for just shy of £38million, as per their agreement with Real Madrid arranged before the transfer ban.
The Spanish giants signed Hazard from the Blues for a fee of €100million plus add-ons and have the worst net spend of any club in Europe's top five divisions at -€181million, shortly followed by Premier League newcomers Aston Villa at -€169m after forking out €172m following their promotion from the Championship and across January.
Real Madrid are joined in the top ten of worst net spends by Manchester United (-€151m) and Tottenham (-€141m) while Arsenal were in 11th with a net spend of -€85m. Premier League clubs had a net spend of -€844m (-£715m) collectively.
