Graham Potter has hit back at Gary Neville who questioned Chelsea's significant January spending with eight players completing transfers to west London. Enzo Fernandez joined Malo Gusto, who immediately headed back to Lyon on loan after signing, Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk, Joao Felix, Benoit Badiashile, Joao Felix, Andrey Santos and David Datro Fofana, when he signed for the Blues for the British record transfer fee on deadline day.
Prior to his arrival for £106.7million from Benfica, Chelsea had already spent over £200million in the winter window after new co-owner Todd Boehly oversaw the start of a significant rebuild in the summer. Further mass spending being done by Chelsea has subsequently raised questions from a number of Premier League managers with Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola raising their concerns.
Klopp started jokingly, cautiously asking: "What did the other managers say? I'll say nothing without my lawyer." He then went on: "I don't understand this part of the business, like what can you do what can you not do, it's a big number.
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"The last two windows and the players they brought in, I didn't think once 'why did they do that'. They are all really good players so from that point of view congratulations when you can do it. I don't understand how it's possible with all the things around, but it's not for me to explain how it works and hopefully you all know how it works."
Guardiola added later in the day: "You have to spend. The market is wow! It's a lot. What Chelsea have decided to do is not my business. I never involve my opinions on other clubs because there are regulations and rules that they have to do it. We were accused. Eight or nine teams in the league send a letter because they want us to be banned and out of the league. That happened to us, we are just the fifth team to spend net in the last five years when we begin to win titles. That is the reality."
The man now with the task of welcoming all those players for hefty fees is Graham Potter, and he has now given his verdict on the money spent by the club. Potter was asked by Gary Neville about his role in the transfers with the Blues boss detailing his impact and giving his take on why Chelsea have bought the players they have.
"Thankfully I’m not the one who makes a decision about the finances because I haven’t got that finance - I’m not as fortunate as you Gary [Neville] in terms of that - my job is as Head Coach," he said.
"It’s to support the club, it’s to make sure we bring the right type of players [in], the right profile of player. We need to be aligned, like I’ve said if you’re just spending and you’re just accumulating players it’s no good - you have to align yourself.
"We try to do, the guys we’ve brought in have helped with that, and it’s a club decision [which players are bought]. It’s a club process, and hopefully tonight we can see the start of it, and it’s about us trying to improve it."
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