Chelsea have hit back at Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon's claim that their spending power may over-inflate transfer fees for other European clubs. Calderon expressed concern at the huge financial loss Chelsea have made since Roman Abramovich became owner in 2003.
He told BBC Five Live: "It's a problem, prices are high. It's very dangerous."
But Chelsea director of communications Simon Greenberg retorted: "It is an open market but sometimes we have to pay more because we are Chelsea."
He added: "The money that we have spent has been invested into football - the majority of it. A very small amount of Roman's investment went on purchasing the club.
"The rest of it has gone into football and filtered down through football.
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"Although we made a substantial loss last year, there were a number of one-off payments that won't be repeated this year.
"We run ourselves as much as we can as a plc and we are completely transparent about our accounts - which is something that cannot be said for many top European clubs, including, I would say, Real Madrid."
Calderon is frustrated as he believes Real will have to spend more to attract the world's best players to the Bernabeu.
"Abramovich is paying a lot of money for players but we have to compete with it," said Calderon.
"In his case, he admitted to having lost nearly �150m last season.
"You just don't know how long those people are going to stay in soccer. If somebody decides to leave, it's going to be a problem."
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Interview: Chelsea communications director Simon Greenberg