Chelsea safe from potential Uefa sanctions over transfer business

Uefa have cleared Chelsea over a potential sporting sanction in the Champions League after they managed to achieve a "positive transfer balance" in the summer transfer window.

In July, the Blues were fined £26.7m for not adhering to Uefa's financial controls and also risked not being able to register new signings like Joao Pedro, Alejandro Garnacho and Estevao Willian for the Champions League had they not sold more players than they bought in the summer window.

However, on Thursday, a Uefa statement confirmed: "The squad list submitted fulfilled the criteria of the settlement agreement and it was therefore already reviewed and approved before publication on Uefa's website."

This summer, Chelsea specifically sold players who were Conference League staples, including Noni Madueke, Christopher Nkunku, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Joao Felix and Renato Veiga - as the Blues broke the Premier League record in player sales.

In fact, the last few days were all about sell, sell, sell for Chelsea, having added eight of ultimately nine new signings to the squad. Only Facundo Buonanotte arrived on deadline day, a season-long loan from Brighton.

However, when Liam Delap pulled up at 12:44pm on Saturday, it sent Chelsea into panic mode. In the hours before the match, AC Milan had completed a move for forward Christopher Nkunku and the club had allowed Nicolas Jackson to travel for a medical at Bayern Munich.

As the seriousness of Delap's injury became known, Chelsea reneged on the deal with Bayern, prompting an angry reaction from Jackson and his representatives.

Chelsea assessed three things: the opportunity of signing Sporting's Conrad Harder, the option of recalling Guiu, and finally a choice to bring Jackson back.

Ultimately, the club felt Guiu's return was the better choice given he has Premier League experience, unlike Harder, plus he knows the system and has the attributes to succeed.

According to Football Transfers, Chelsea's net spend is £1.5m with £285m spent on the likes of Delap, Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens and Alejandro Garnacho. This was countered with £283.5m of sales, which included Noni Madueke, Joao Felix and Nkunku. Add-on fees also take Chelsea into a positive balance.

Chelsea also offloaded almost all of their unwanted loanees but Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi remain stranded in the 'bomb squad'. They have sold over £750m worth of players to partially balance the more than £1.6bn spent on incoming transfers over the past three years.