Thomas Frank has issued a strong verdict on Chelsea's winter spending this season with Brentford currently sitting ahead of their west London rivals in the Premier League table. Graham Potter's side are one point behind the Bees heading into their fixture against Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday and are looking to get back-to-back wins for the first time since October.
The last time the two sides met Chelsea were still unbeaten under Potter, with Brentford ending a five match winning run that had seen the top four become a serious challenge for the Blues. Since then they have won just twice in the league in nine matches.
Brentford themselves are having a fine season after spending less than £50m over the summer, whilst Todd Boehly spent more than that on teenagers alone, bringing in over £250m worth of talent. None of the summer deals are yet to have any tangible rewards and it has led to the big spending this month.
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Mykhailo Mudryk became the fifth player across the line last week and could make his debut for Chelsea against Liverpool having joined for an initial £62million which could rise to £88million with add ons. That matched Shakhtar Donetsk's valuation and got the deal done for the 22-year-old.
Frank says things have gotten out of control though, stating in a press conference: "There's a lot of money around in the football world and especially in the Premier League. Looking from the outside Mudryk is a really good player, €100million (£87.6million) is a lot for a player that is showing great, great signs of potential, probably needs to do a bit more.
"Maybe that's just the price tag these days, which is insane. They bought him and then there's rumours about the PSV guy [Noni Madueke]. I think they have enough wingers but that's their attitude."
Brentford tried to sign him over the summer for a fraction of the price but were unable to prize away Shakhtar's star asset. He may well be joined at Stamford Bridge by Madueke, whose move from the Eredivisie is at an advanced stage, football.london understands. That would make it six new players in January and take the total spending in the market under Boehly to almost £450million since he took over the club in May, 2022.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp also gave his verdict on the move, adding: "Chelsea sorts problems differently to us, so let's see.
"I can't explain it [the spending], I have no idea. But if the numbers are true then it's impressive....I am not sure Chelsea can do that for the next 10 years though."
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