Kepa Arrizabalaga set for Chelsea exit but permanent Bournemouth move is unlikely
Spanish goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga is heading for a Chelsea exit this summer, but a permanent move to AFC Bournemouth is highly unlikely.
That's according to Luca Bendoni, who reports that both Arrizabalaga and Bournemouth are exploring other options rather than sticking together.
The 30-year-old spent the season on loan at Bournemouth and featured 31 times in the Premier League this season under manager Andoni Iraola.
He managed eight clean sheets and also kept one in four FA Cup games.
Arrizabalaga has enjoyed a decent loan spell with the Cherries, establishing himself as a reliable presence between the sticks.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't translate into a permanent deal this summer, but not for the lack of trying.
Bendoni claims Bournemouth had already made a move to keep the Spaniard at the club but to no avail, so both sides are now considering other options on the market.
The good news for Chelsea is that Arrizabalaga has plenty of admirers both in England and abroad. The Blues are desperate to get him off their wage bill and could get their wish this summer.
Before making the switch to the south coast last summer, Arrizabalaga extended his Chelsea contract by one year, keeping him on the club's payroll until June 2026.
There was also a £5 million release clause in the contract, which is now open for interested clubs.
The move was designed to protect the Blues' transfer interests, allowing them to potentially recoup some value for a player who once held the title of the world's most expensive goalkeeper.
Arrizabalaga has no hopes of returning to Chelsea. The Blues have other plans and are already stacked up in the goalkeeping department.
At the moment, they're still pondering what to do with Robert Sanchez, Djordje Petrovic, Filip Jorgensen, and the talented Mike Penders, who has turned heads with an exceptional loan spell at KRC Genk.
Chelsea's initial idea was to give Petrovic and Penders a chance to displace Sanchez as the club's number-one shot-stopper.
However, there have been talks of another loan deal for Penders while Petrovic's future is still up in the air despite a transformative spell at RC Strasbourg.
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Advertisement In the prior two seasons, the club lost a combined £142.3million before tax, and we know from previous disclosures that 2022-23's PSR loss was £62.7m, against a pre-tax loss of £89.1m. That left them needing a PSR loss of below £38m in 2023-24, which they managed, but not with a great deal of headroom. Accordingly, with those figures still part of their calculation, we estimate Everton need to keep 2024-25's pre-tax loss below £39m. The operating loss pre-player sales for 2023-24 was £82.3m, so even the big sale of Amadou Onana to Aston Villa last July mightn't have been enough on its own to bring them to where they need to be. Prize money from the Premier League likely only ticked up a small amount, and while the lack of legal battles has saved money, Everton's PSR compliance looks to be a close-run thing again, at least to the end of June, albeit one we believe they'll be just about OK on. After this month, that £62.7m PSR deficit from 2022-23 will disappear from view. Fulham were close to a PSR breach in 2022-23, the first season of their current stint in the Premier League, ultimately avoiding one via some Covid-19-related deductions as well as costs incurred on the redevelopment of Craven Cottage's Riverside Stand. Since then, the club have sailed away from both the lower reaches of the table and regulatory trouble, and with 2024-25 being the first year in which they benefit from the full £105million PSR loss limit (as all three of the seasons in their 2022-25 PSR calculation were spent in the Premier League), Fulham should have few worries this time around. Combined pre-tax losses in the previous two seasons total £58.5million, and we estimate that, after removing allowable costs, Fulham could lose up to £77m for 2024-25 and remain compliant. That looks unlikely, even with underlying operating losses as high as £64.9m a season ago. Advertisement This time around, Fulham have enjoyed greater Premier League prize money (we reckon they've seen an over £10million increase), higher player-sale profits (another £10m or so) and, crucially for a club with a history of low gate receipts in a ground that holds less than 30,000 people, the benefits of more premium offerings for matchday attendees. Leeds United's return to the top tier at the second time of asking brought thousands onto the city's streets and, you suspect, relief in the boardroom. The Yorkshire club spent heavily on trying to avoid relegation and, when that failed, on getting back to the Premier League as quickly as possible. In the previous two seasons, Leeds' pre-tax loss totalled £94.5million, which isn't great when we consider the 2022-25 PSR cycle will include two years of EFL loss limits. In all, they can only lose £61m over the three-year period and remain compliant. A £2.5m 'Cost of Living Allowance', introduced by the EFL for the 2024-25 season as a deduction in clubs' PSR calculations, will help towards meeting that sum (fellow promoted sides Burnley and Sunderland will benefit from it too). From a PSR perspective, after taking into account the relevant deductions, including the one above, we estimate Leeds could lose around £42million for 2024-25 and stay within financial rules. Usefully, as detailed in our Burnley section, promotion bonuses (totalling £19.2m, per Leeds' accounts) won't be included in their current PSR calculation. As well, the sales of Georginio Rutter, Crysencio Summerville and Glen Kamara generated around £70m in sales proceeds (the profit figure is lower). The recent sale of Rasmus Kristensen to Eintracht Frankfurt provided further profit. Their 2023-24 operating loss before player sales was £76.3m, and broadcast income fell last season by around £8m due to a reduced parachute payment. Getting the pre-tax loss down to the £42m mark we've estimated looks a bit of a squeeze, but The Athletic understands Leeds aren't in the position of needing to sell before the end of June. If they do, it will be because the deal makes sense, regardless of its timing. Chairman Paraag Marathe has previously stated his hope that Leeds have 'a PSR issue every year, because everything we do is going to be about maximising our ability to be as competitive as we can be'. They will be close to the limit this month, but should be just about fine. Despite breaking even since Fenway Sports Group bought the club in October 2010, Liverpool's pre-tax result for 2023-24 was their worst ever — £57.1m was shipped, which on top of a £9m deficit a year earlier put the club's combined loss at £66.1m for the first two years of the current PSR cycle. Liverpool haven't been funded by equity recently, so their losses are limited to £15million over three seasons. They do, however, have chunky allowable costs. The club's infrastructure accounts for around £16m in annual depreciation charges, while they also run one of the more expensive youth setups in England. Advertisement We estimate Liverpool could have lost £75million in their 2024-25 accounting period (which ended on Saturday) and still have been compliant with Premier League rules. In reality, with booming revenues and player sale profits of £41.9m (around double the size of 2023-24), Liverpool were considerably more likely to have been profitable last season than to have strayed anywhere close to their loss limit. City's January transfer splurge added over £20million in transfer fee amortisation — and unknown amounts in wages — to their 2024-25 costs, in the same season their earnings from Europe dropped significantly after they exited the Champions League in the first knockout round. Not that there's any cause for concern in a PSR sense. City have booked significant pre-tax profits in recent years, and lost prize money from last season at home and in Europe will be, at least in part, offset by monies from this summer's Club World Cup. City's profits over the previous two seasons total £154.1million, and that's before allowable costs are deducted. So profitable have the club been that ownership has had little need to inject equity. That means City's PSR loss limit for the current cycle is just £15m, but no matter. We project they could lose close to £300million for the season just ended and be fine, PSR-wise. As detailed by The Athletic, Manchester United's PSR position is calculated using the accounts of Red Football Limited (RFL), rather than Manchester United plc (RFL is a subsidiary of the plc entity). That's a pretty big factor, as in recent years the pre-tax result of those companies has diverged significantly. In 2023-24, Manchester United plc lost £130.7million before tax; for RFL, the deficit was just £36.2m. Per UEFA's most recent European Club Finance and Investment Landscape report, pre-tax loss figures for United were €22m (£19m at the exchange rate used in the report) in 2022-23 and €42m (£36m) in 2023-24 — an exact mirror of the pre-tax results in RFL's accounts. The difference stems partly from RFL including none of the costs borne by the plc as part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe's share purchase in February 2024, but also from the structure of loans within the wider Manchester United group. RFL's bottom line benefited from booking interest income on intra-group loans owed to RFL by entities further up the corporate chain, as well as recharging staff time to elsewhere in the business (sources have told The Athletic this time comprised plc-related business undertaken by executives, such as investor relations, rather than football-related activities). Foreign exchange differences in RFL were more favourable than at the plc level, too. Based on RFL's loss figures, it's a struggle to see how there were ever any PSR worries at the club — though that's only true once Ratcliffe's arrival was accompanied by equity investment, which raised United's three-year PSR loss limit from £15m to £105m. There is also the complication whereby we do not know exactly which costs United were required to add back into their PSR calculation. Both the Premier League and UEFA use a 'reporting perimeter' that requires you to include all costs 'in respect of (that club's) football activities', including any amounts that occur under the auspice of other legal entities. According to Old Trafford sources, for the purposes of their PSR calculation, United are required to strip out any foreign exchange differences and the impact of intra-group loan interest. That means United's pre-tax loss in its PSR calculation is larger than that shown in RFL's accounts, though still below the loss in the plc entity. RFL's pre-tax loss across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons was £55.1million, and United's loss limit across the three-year PSR cycle is £105m following Ratcliffe's injections of equity in 2024. After taking into account allowable costs, and adjusting for exchange differences and the intra-group interest, we reckon United could lose around £141m in 2024-25 and still comply with Premier League rules. In other words, they'll be fine this summer, however surprising that may seem. Newcastle's PSR troubles this time a year ago were well documented, and led to the sales of Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh for roughly £60million in profit, without which the club would have breached financial rules in 2023-24. The club's position is rather less squeezed this summer; indeed, coach Eddie Howe has already stated '(PSR) issues aren't there for the coming window'. That's certainly true looking ahead to next season, when 2022-23's £71.8million pre-tax loss will drop out of Newcastle's PSR calculation. Up to the end of this month, that sum remains in there, alongside the £11.1m lost the previous season. We estimate Newcastle can lose up to £83m in 2024-25 and remain compliant. Before player sales, Newcastle have lost just shy of £70million in each of the prior two seasons, so doing that again in the latest one would run them pretty close to their limit again. Continued commercial income improvements will help, though a curious potential issue is one they'll benefit from next year: Champions League qualification means booming revenue in 2025-26, but staff bonuses likely crystallise in 2024-25. Even so, we expect Newcastle should indeed be OK at the end of June. The sales of Miguel Almiron and Lloyd Kelly to suitors abroad should bring the bottom line below £83million. Had Newcastle been subject to UEFA's lower loss limits it would have been a tighter squeeze — not least because Europe's governing body requires adjustments to the profits recognised on the 2023-24 sales of Anderson and Allan Saint-Maximin — but that PSR regime won't be a consideration until next season. Forest's PSR troubles were played out rather publicly in 2023-24, as the club copped a four-point deduction for overspending following their 2022 promotion. In the end, it made no difference to their league position that year, but some of the signings which contributed to that punishment have repaid the hassle to Forest several times over — their 10-spot jump up to finish seventh last season has, by our reckoning, generated an extra £34.2million in Premier League prize money. Forest actually booked a £10.1million pre-tax profit last season, the byproduct of recording over £100m in profit on player sales. That swung a chunky £75.3m operating loss into the black, though with little in the way of big departures in 2024-25 we can expect them to fall back into loss-making territory. Still, the significant improvement in domestic prize money should ensure they fall a decent way short of the £85million we project they could lose for the season without breaching PSR. Sunderland spending the past eight years out of the Premier League means they're the only club in the 2025-26 competition who won't have the opportunity to benefit from at least one PSR year with an upper loss limit of £35million; instead, each of the three years within their PSR calculation are capped at an upper limit of £13m, or £39m in total. In fact, Sunderland's PSR limit is even lower than that, as they've received no equity from ownership in recent years. To that end, their limit across the 2022-25 cycle is just £15million. For many Championship clubs that would be troublesome, but Sunderland have managed to get out of the second tier within three seasons of their 2022 promotion back to it — so before losses racked up too heavily. The club's pre-tax loss across 2022-23 and 2023-24 was a combined £17.6million and after even some pretty stingy deductions — the club operate a Category 1 academy, and we've likely underestimated the cost of doing so — we reckon Sunderland's PSR result over those seasons was actually £5m in the black. For the season just ended, we estimate Sunderland could lose up to £33million and remain PSR compliant. They will, therefore, be fine. They sold Jack Clarke for a sizeable profit last summer and then their play-off final hero Tommy Watson for a further £10million in a deal announced in April, and had generally been at the low end of Championship operating losses in recent years. Promotion bonuses would worsen the bottom line, but, as detailed above, Sunderland won't need to include those in their 2024-25 PSR submissions to the EFL. At first glance, Tottenham might appear ripe for PSR trouble. Once routinely profitable, they've booked five consecutive pre-tax losses — £120.7m in the previous two years which will therefore be included in their 2024-25 PSR calculation. Yet all of those worries are swept away in an instant when we consider that, in those same two seasons, Spurs incurred £141.6m in depreciation and non-player amortisation costs, principally on their state-of-the-art new stadium. Removing those costs puts them into the black from a PSR perspective, even before any further deductions. Once those are included, and we again account for the near-£70million annual depreciation cost, we estimate Tottenham could lose over £250m in 2024-25, probably around £277m, and still remain PSR-compliant. Even as their Premier League prize money has tumbled by virtue of a 17th-place finish in the 20-team division, the loss will be nowhere near that sort of figure. Spurs' bigger issue this summer was finding the actual cash to spend, though qualification for the 2025-26 Champions League as winners of the Europa League has eased some of those worries. West Ham generated an impressive £57.2million pre-tax profit in 2023-24, driven by the near-£100m profit recognised on the sale of Declan Rice to Arsenal in the early stages of that financial year. Their two-year pre-tax result leading into last season was therefore profitable, to the tune of £38.9m. West Ham's allowable PSR loss dwindled over the intervening months, as their last equity injection came during 2021-22, a period which drops off this next three-year calculation. That means they can only lose up to £15million in the three seasons spanning 2022-25, once allowable costs are removed. Even so, they are in little danger — and, with their accounting year-end falling on May 31, their lack of activity recently is reflective of as much. We estimate West Ham could have lost £95m in 2024-25 and remained PSR-compliant. In February, Wolves took the step of shifting their accounting year-end date from May 31 to June 30. That's a move which previously might have been seen as a club bringing their accounting dates into line with peers; now, rightly or wrongly, it comes with the added connotation of being seen as required in order to ensure a PSR breach is avoided. Wolves lost £81.5million across 2022-23 and 2023-24 and, while the latter figures were improved (the loss reduced from £67.2m to £14.3m) they still carried an operating loss, before player sales, of £73.3m. They also don't appear to have full use of the maximum £105m three-year loss limit. The club's only known equity injection across this and the previous two seasons was a £79.7m capital contribution from owner Fosun in 2023-24 — which would mean their maximum PSR loss is pegged at £94.7m. The club required the sale of Ruben Neves this month two years ago to ease PSR concerns then, but the recent departure of Matheus Cunha doesn't look to have been a regulatory necessity. We estimate Wolves could lose £56million in 2024-25 and stay within Premier League rules. Set against £70million-plus operating losses, that would be problematic, but the club banked £65.3m in player profits last summer, primarily on the sales of Maximilian Kilman and Pedro Neto. Cunha's departure tips that figure over the £100m mark, and there's little need for them to look to sell anyone else this month. (Top photos: Getty Images)
