Updated: 6 May 2026 15:34 BST |<\/span> Robin Bairner Accredited football journalist and editor covering the game since 2006 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Chelsea players are set to bear the brunt of the club\u2019s failure to qualify for the Champions League next season, with the Stamford Bridge outfit slashing the wages of some of their top stars.<\/p>\n The Stamford Bridge side sit ninth in the Premier League table, and though sixth will earn a Champions League berth should Arsenal win the European Cup, the prospect of the Blues doing so is slim.<\/p>\n Chelsea already cannot catch Aston Villa in fifth, while they are four points back of Bournemouth in sixth with just nine left to be won this season.<\/p>\n The Telegraph<\/i><\/b> reports that Stamford Bridge bosses have prepared for this worst-case scenario, having installed clauses in many players\u2019 contracts that will see massive pay cuts for a failure to reach the Champions League.<\/p>\n It claims that \u2018large numbers\u2019 of players face the prospect of missing out on a bonus that sees their salaries rise by \u2018approximately 20 per cent\u2019 for playing in the competition.<\/p>\n Among those players expected to be hit are Reece James and Moises Caicedo, who signed contracts recently \u2018aligned\u2019 with BlueCo\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n While the wages of players are notoriously difficult to verify, it has been claimed that James is Chelsea\u2019s highest earner on around \u20ac290,000 (\u00a3250,000) per week. If he were to lose 20% of this figure, it would cost him a little over \u20ac3 million (\u00a32.6m) per year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s mad if any of the players have downed tools, because they\u2019re hurting themselves. Chelsea players don\u2019t have the guarantee of big basic wages like some of the other top clubs and they get big bonuses for the Champions League. So to chuck that away is literally throwing money away,\u201d an unnamed source said.<\/p>\n With Chelsea likely to be seeking to make sales to limit the damage financially on the club, which recorded a \u20ac328m loss in their latest accounts, the pay situation may prompt some stars to consider their future at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n The Telegraph points out that some players on older contracts have deals that give them a one-year grace period with regards these bonus payments, meaning they will still receive their maximum salary level until next summer as a minimum.<\/p>\n This may mean that the likes of Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez, who are reportedly unsettled at the club, may be given a reprieve. Others, however, may seek to leave \u2013 or be pushed out the door.<\/p>\n Will Xavi be Chelsea\u2019s next manager? Ex-Barcelona boss confirms approach<\/b><\/p>\n Chelsea Transfer News Today: Joao Pedro stance confirmed as next manager plan revealed<\/b><\/p>\n Transfer Rumours: Ederson pushed to Man Utd as Arsenal move for alternative<\/b><\/p>\n Check out FootballTransfers’ new app for all of football’s big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.<\/p>\n The FootballTransfers app is available on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Download here:<\/p>\n \u2022Google Play<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022App Store<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Updated: 6 May 2026 15:34 BST | 4 min read \u00a9 IMAGO Robin Bairner |…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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