Hasselbaink: On the move (TonyMarshall/Empics)

Chelsea still owe Barcelona money on last year's transfers of Emmanuel Petit and Boudewijn Zenden and the final instalment, thought to be £5m, is due next week.

The Stamford Bridge club are currently facing a series of financial problems and have already had to renegotiate loans that were due for payment this summer.

Chelsea spent £10m on Petit and Zenden last summer but paid only part of the money up front. According to Hasselbaink's agent, Humphrey Nijman, Chelsea want to sell the striker to ease their money worries.

Barcelona vice-president Joan Castells, also the Catalan club's financial director, said: 'Barcelona and Chelsea set up a hire purchase agreement for Petit and Zenden and the final amount is due on August 31.

'A bank has underwritten the payment and we have legally-binding documents and a cover of guarantee from the bank assuring that the money will be paid. If Chelsea have a problem, then that is between them and the bank.'

Selling Hasselbaink is one option that would ease Chelsea's financial problems but, according to Barcelona, the 30-year-old striker is not currently on the club's wish list. Castells said: 'The idea we'd buy Hasselbaink to wipe out any outstanding debt that Chelsea may have hasn't entered our heads.'

That means they will have to come up with the £5m on Saturday.

Chelsea have spent all summer restructuring their finances, refusing to spend in the transfer market and postponing repayment of a key £5m loan for five years.

But a further £6.65m interest payment is due on another loan in December this year.

Chairman Ken Bates has said: 'Interest (on the loan) has been paid on the due date for the last three years as it will be this year.'

But it all means Chelsea now have a series of multi-million payments to meet. And their long-term borrowings now stand at £96.9m, which have to be paid back by 2007.

The club company Chelsea Village lost £11m last year and, due to the collapse of several TV companies around Europe, there is no longer any prospect of huge increases in TV deals to make good any shortfalls.

Bates has always argued that Chelsea have assets worth millions and so the club are not at risk.

For example, Chelsea currently value their playing staff at £85.9m. However, in the current collapsed transfer market, it is debatable whether Chelsea's squad would be worth half that amount.

It is has been a difficult summer for Chelsea as their mysterious majority shareholder bailed out of the club. Swan Management, which owned 26 per cent of the club, sold all its shares in June, with Bates buying the majority.

There is further embarrassment concerning former director Stanley Tollman, a business associate of Bates, charged with a multi-million pound fraud in the US. Tollman is currently being sought by authorities there.

According to an indictment issued by the US Courts, he channelled his money through bank accounts managed by Guernsey firm Saffrey Champness.

Swan Management's shares were also managed by Saffrey Champness, who are auditors of Chelsea Village.