Chelsea's internal figures suggest they spent £328m on improving the squad and made £519m worth of players sales (with loan fees) - a global record.
That's a net profit of £120m while retaining the sixth most valuable squad in the world.
They hint at reinvestment in transfer windows to come having had a window that improves their financial picture and engineering a better squad for Xabi Alonso.
Of course, we don't have a breakdown of how the figures are reached and many of the loan fees are undisclosed but known to be sizeable in some cases.
Chelsea's 74 FA charges have come about as a result of the new owners discovering potential breaches of the rules when they were carrying out due diligence when they bought the club in 2022. As soon as they bought Chelsea in May 2022, they self-reported the potential historical breaches to the FA, the Premier League and UEFA.
Due diligence during the takeover process is believed to have uncovered payments connected to transfers to offshore companies and players' families and representatives. The multi-million pound payments appear not have been registered in accounts submitted to the FA, the Premier League and UEFA.
At the time of their takeover, Chelsea’s new owners withheld £100m of the £2.5bn they paid for the club to cover unforeseen liabilities.
In July 2023 Chelsea agreed to pay UEFA €10m as a settlement for incomplete financial reporting between 2012 and 2019 during the period when Roman Abramovich owned the club. The Premier League investigation into Chelsea is ongoing.
Over the past three years Chelsea have been co-operating fully with all the investigations and have handed over all the files and data they have been asked to provide.
Regarding possible punishment – a sporting sanction could punish present owners and players who were not at the club when the potential breaches occurred. It could also discourage others from self-reporting potential breaches. For those reasons, a financial penalty may be a more appropriate sanction.
The transfers which raised potential concerns during the takeover process are believed to include deals for players such as Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto’o and Willian.