How Uefa restrictions impacted Chelsea's transfer window

 It was supposed to be a calm end to the transfer window for Chelsea with the plan being to sell, sell, sell.

But 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 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.

Chelsea were also under pressure from Uefa for not complying with financial controls in past seasons, and in July they were asked to pay a substantial £26.7m fine.

Sporting sanctions were an issue and any new signings would not have been allowed to be registered for the Champions League if the club had not maintained "a positive transfer balance" in this transfer window.

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 are happy that most of the players who were on loan elsewhere last season but unwanted by those clubs - such as Felix, Renato Veiga and Armando Broja - were sold.

Yet it is clear Chelsea have made strides to be compliant. They have sought to balance rampant spending over the past two seasons with rampant selling.

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.