By Dr Dan Plumley

12th Dec, 2022 | 4:32pm

Finance guru: Chelsea 'chasing down the cash' as £80m deal aborted - 'I've never seen this before'

Chelsea have no choice but to “chase down the money” they are owed by now-former sleeve sponsor WhaleFin.

That is the view of finance expert Doctor Dan Plumley, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the demise of the record £20million-a-year partnership.

Chelsea signed a four-year deal with the cryptocurrency firm ahead of the current campaign.

But as relayed by Bloomberg last Friday (9 December), the company is set to end its sponsorship of Chelsea after being left exposed by the FTX scandal.

Plumley does not anticipate that the West Londoners will find another sponsors of equivalent value any time soon.

“We never quite know when the money is paid because that information is internal to the club,” the Sheffield Hallam University expert told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.

“I know WhaleFin are trying to look at their legal options in terms of pulling out of the deal. It was thought to be worth around £20m, which I thought was very high.

“For that kind of deal, it’s much higher than we have ever seen. It looked like a great deal. Whether they got any of that money upfront, I don’t know.

“The implications for the club are that you have to chase as much of that cash down as possible. You then have to find a replacement because all your rivals are continuing to get money from these deals.

“So they are in a position where they have to go out and find another partner.

“I always thought this one was a little bit risky given what we have seen from the crypto space. I don’t think they are going to find another deal of this value. I would expect it to be worth about half of that.“

In other news, former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino “pushing for Chelsea job” amid new Graham Potter doubts.