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Since the buyout of majority shares in Chelsea by Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich in 2003, the London based club have seen a massive upturn in their fortunes, growing from a mid-table side into a genuine Premier League heavyweight.
In the succeeding 16 years, Chelsea have been the most successful English club, winning virtually every trophy winnable, including five Premier League titles, six FA Cups, the Champions League, as well as the Europa League amongst others.
Upon taking over the club, Abramovich embarked on an aggressive spending spree that saw him bring the best players in the world to the club - twice breaking the Premier League record transfer fees to sign Fernando Torres and Andriy Shevchenko in addition to other marquee signings.
This practice still holds till this day and The Blues can count on the services of some of the finest players anywhere on the planet.
However, it is not just their billionaire owner's funding that keeps them going, as the club has achieved some sort of financial independence devoid of Abramovich, and are constantly among the highest earning clubs in terms of revenue, as their successes on the field of play has translated into offield success.
The Blues signed a lucrative shirt sponsorship deal with giant Japanese tire manufacturers Yokohama, while their kit manufacturing deal with Nike worth £900m over six years is also significantly impressive.
It goes without saying that the caliber of players at Chelsea means that the club has a huge wage bill, as generally as a rule of thumb, big players tend to attract huge salaries.
With a wage budget of £225 million, Chelsea stands top of the highest spending clubs in terms of player's wages, but some might say that this is not money well spent, judging by their struggles so far this season.
In this piece, we shall be having a rundown of the five highest earners at Chelsea currently.
Figures courtesy of sillyseason.com.
Note - Alvaro Morata's 2017 contract with Chelsea sees him earn £200,000 / week, making him the joint-third highest earner at the club, however, he has been left off the list due to his loan move to Atletico Madrid.
#5 David Luiz / Olivier Giroud / Danny Drinkwater - £120,000 / week
David Luiz was signed by Chelsea from Benfica in January 2011 for €25 m and after three-and-half years of winning the hearts of the Stamford Bridge faithful, he transferred to PSG in the summer of 2014 for £50m to become the most expensive defender of all time.
The Brazilian international returned to the Bridge in 2016, signing a three-year-deal which sees him net £120,000 / week.
His contract is set to expire this season, but the player himself and members of the Chelsea board are currently locked in negotiations over an extension.
For his part, Olivier Giroud arrived Chelsea in January 2018 to serve as cover-up for the misfiring Alvaro Morata. The Frenchman has however done little to justify the massive £120,000 he receives in wages weekly.
However, his case is much more justifiable than that of Danny Drinkwater whose impact has been so negligible (he is yet to kick a competitive ball in anger for Chelsea all season long) is bound to go down as one of the very worst transfers in the history of Chelsea.
#4 Kepa Arrizabalaga - £192,000 / week
Thibaut Courtois's misdemeanors in seeking a transfer to Real Madrid meant that Chelsea needed to get a replacement goalkeeper. They turned their attention to Athletic Bilbao's Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Kepa who? was the question asked by a lot of people upon confirmation of the club's interest, as despite the fact that the 24-year-old had a burgeoning reputation in La Liga, not much was known about him elsewhere.
This situation was compounded much more by the news that the club was willing to make him the most expensive goalkeeper of all time, paying his release clause of £71.6m to sign him on a seven-year deal.
Details of his contract revealed that the Spanish international takes home a whopping £192,000 every week, but he still has some way to go before justifying those huge sums.
Since arriving in Chelsea, Kepa has been solid if unspectacular, letting in a number of cheap goals, while his antics in the League Cup final against Manchester City won him few admirers.
#3 Eden Hazard - £200,000 / week
Ever since he completed his £32m transfer to Chelsea in the summer of 2012, Eden Hazard has gone on to become the most important player at the club, contributing immensely to all the successes enjoyed by the Stamford Bridge outfit since then.
Not only is the Belgian the most important player at Chelsea, he is also to a large extent among the best players in the world, making it to the FIFPo XI last year following his spectacular Silver Ball winning performance at the World Cup, where he captained his country to a third placed finish in Russia.
One aspect of the 28-year-old's game which has however drawn criticism has been his lack of productivity in front of the goal (compared to other world beaters) as well as his inconsistency.
He seemed to have put those criticisms to bed with his blistering start to the season, as he started the current campaign like a house on fire, however, that seems to have been a false dawn as the Belgian has once more seen a dip in his performance levels of late.
Chelsea also find themselves in the midst of a terrible run of form that could see them miss out on a top four finish, leading to speculations that Hazard is seeking a transfer away from the club.
It is no hidden secret that Hazard has his heart set on playing for Madrid, having stated so numerous times in the past, but Chelsea fans would be hoping that the club can tie him down to a new deal even if it means significantly increasing the £200,000 per week he earns currently.
#2 Gonzalo Higuain - £270,000 / week
Following the struggles in front of goal by Chelsea's two first team strikers - Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud - the club made it a top priority to sign a proven goalscorer, and head coach Maurizio Sarri identified Argentine international Gonzalo Higuain as his man.
The pair had worked together for two seasons at Napoli where the Italian manager helped Higuain achieve his best scoring campaign till date, scoring 36 goals during the course of the 2015/2016 Serie A season to break a 60-year long-standing record for most goals scored in a single Scudetto season.
The 31-year-old had previously starred for Real Madrid, and upon leaving Naples went on to Juventus where although he failed to match his previous heights, he still maintained a decent goals ratio in his two seasons at Turin.
Higuain has been one of the most prolific scorers in Europe over the last 15 years, netting over 300 goals in his professional career which convinced Chelsea to cut short his loan spell at Milan to bring him to Samford Bridge.
So far, he has starred with three goals from ten matches in all competitions which is a rather poor return considering that he is paid a massive £270.000 every week.
#1 N'golo Kante - £290,000 / week
Very rarely do defensive midfielders earn praise for their work, as despite being among the most integral members of a football team and doing more work than a lot of their teammates, holding midfielders more often than not get pushed under the radar in favor of their more illustrious and attacking minded colleagues.
It says a lot about how good a defensive midfielder is at his job when he not only receives plaudits, but also gets paid more than his teammates and this is exactly the situation N'golo Kante finds himself in.
Having established himself as the most important member of Leicester's fairytale Premier League winning team, many saw it as an anomaly that he was not awarded the PFA Player of the Year in 2016, but this was rectified the very next season as he was handed the award after playing a key role in helping Chelsea lift the title in 2017.
Since then, numerous other awards have been handed to the 27-year-old World Cup winner including making it into the FIFPro XI in 2018 which is just considering what he offers on the field.
Amidst rumors of reported interest from other clubs, Chelsea made the decision to tie Kante down to a new contract in November 2018 which sees him pocket the unbelievable sum of £290,000 every week to keep him at the club until 2023 and is indicative of the extremely high value placed on him by Chelsea.
