Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have both expressed scepticism over new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly’s approach in his first transfer window since completing his takeover of the club.
The Blues have completed the signing of Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli this summer. The West London club landed the Senegalese star after striking a £33.8million deal for the 31-year-old. Chelsea have also signed Raheem Sterling from Manchester City in a £50million transfer. Teenage goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina has joined from Chicago Fire in an £8million agreement while they're looking to beat City to the signing of Brighton's highly-rated Spaniard Marc Cucurella.
Yet there is plenty of work still to do at Stamford Bridge this summer. Andreas Christensen joined Barcelona as a free agent following the expiration of his contract as Antonio Rudiger joined Real Madrid after his contract also expired.
Club record signing Romelu Lukaku’s nightmare year concluded with his return to Inter on a season-long loan deal. Barcelona also remain in pole position to land Blues defensive duo Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso, as more experience looks set to exit the club.
Boehly is now in charge after he led a consortium that bought the Blues for more than £4billion following Roman Abramovich’s departure, with changes aplenty taking place. Among the high-profile figures to leave the club are chairman Bruce Buck and transfer guru Marina Granovskaia, with Boehly acting as de facto sporting director this summer.
Neville has now claimed that Boehly’s approach makes it “look like he wants to play football manager” and suggested that there was no long-term strategy behind the club’s transfer policy this summer, with Chelsea feeling the impact of the key departures off the field this summer.
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Neville, speaking on the Overlap, in partnership with Sky Bet, added: “Theres a bit of something that in him. He’s wandering around a little bit and they’re a bit panicky now. You’re wondering ‘oh they’re coming in for [Frenkie] de Jong this morning’ because he feels like he has to do something, that pressure is on him.
“He wouldn’t have had that pressure if he’d have kept the people that have been there before and just let them operate for a year or two, but it’ll be an interesting season for Chelsea. Obviously, they’ve lost a few defenders as well. They might even lose more to Barcelona.”
Neville’s guest and fellow Sky Sports pundit Carragher was in agreement, believing that Boehly’s approach had led to the Blues “panic buying” players this summer, alluding to the club’s big outlay on signing Cucurella from Brighton in a position which already had enjoyed plenty of investment.
Carragher added: “I think the way most football clubs are run now, it’s a lot more organised, a lot more sort of, you know, who you want, it’s not sort of these panic things that used to happen in the past and people just go buy and you’d look at it.
“I look at a couple of things Chelsea do and I’m just thinking, is it a panic because you haven’t bought someone and you gotta get someone. You bought Ben Chilwell for £50million and then you’re trying to get another left back, like you didn’t want them a month ago, you want them now.”
Neville then contrasted Chelsea’s approach under Boehly to that of Manchester City and Liverpool, whom he insisted took a lower key stance in identifying and signing new players in comparison to the new Blues owner, whom he added was “too prominent” and believed he was most comparable to former Manchester United CEO Ed Woodward.
“They’re [Chelsea] almost like bouncing around because it feels like he [Todd Boehly] has to do something,” added Neville. “I’m hearing his name too much. It feels like, it’s not to be disrespectful, you know he’s a prominent guy, he’s just bought the club and everything.
“He’s fronted a fund that’s paid two and a half billion quid, but to get rid of all that football operation that’s been unbelievable for that many years and come in and do it yourself, it does feel like Ed Woodward that to me. We’ll see it develop.”
Concluding his analysis on Chelsea’s change in transfer approach under the new setup, Neville added: “He (Boehly) looks a little bit green, a little bit naïve. He’s certainly not as smart as the people Abramovich hired.”
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