Maurizio Sarri cleaved opinion during his 12 months at Stamford Bridge - but love him or loathe him, he pushed Chelsea into the Champions League and that counts for a lot.
The prize money figures released by UEFA, which drew the group stage for the 2019/20 iteration of the tournament on Thursday, underline just how important it is for the Blues to keep their place in the Champions League this season.
As winners of the Champions League earlier this year, Liverpool, all told, collected close to €110million – or around £100million - from UEFA’s revenue streams.
Chelsea will earn €15.25m – or around £13.8m at current exchange rates – just by competing in the Champions League group stages.
This flat fee is on offer to clubs by UEFA as prize money simply for taking part in the group stage, regardless of how they get on in the six games played between September and December.
Each win in the group stage is worth an additional €2.7m to the Blues, meaning a perfect record in the group stage is worth a little under €31.5m in total.
A draw brings €0.9m to each side, with further cash on offer through a complex payment system based on the number of games won by sides.
In essence, the €1.8m paid out in total by UEFA for a draw is €0.9m shy of the money awarded for a win – so UEFA tallies up all the outstanding €0.9m resulting from draws across ALL groups, adds it all together, divides it by the number of wins across ALL groups and then hands out ‘shares’ to sides based on their number of wins.
Chelsea will fight for a place in the knock-out stage in a group also comprising Ajax, Valencia and Lille.
Should clubs qualify for the knock-out stages of the competition by finishing either first or second in the group, UEFA awards increasing prize money based on the stage reached.
The round of 16 pays out €9.5m; the quarter final another €10.5m; the semi-final a further €12m; and the final €15m.
The team lifting the cup is awarded €19m, plus the opportunity to compete in the 2019/20 UEFA Super Cup, featuring the winners of the Champions League and the Europa League.
Here, another €8m prize pot is shared: €4.5m to the winner and €3.5m to the runner-up.
These vast sums, demonstrating just how integral Champions League competition is to Premier League sides, are handed out per the latest three-year agreement by UEFA that commenced last season and runs until 2020/21.
Alongside prize money, UEFA also awards money based on a coefficient ranking system and TV pool.
Teams with historical precedent in Europe alongside more recent success – the measure being over the last ten seasons - benefit heavily from the coefficient ranking.
