Manchester United legend Gary Neville questions the transfer fees Chelsea paid for the signings of Marc Cucurella from Brighton in the summer and Enzo Fernandez from Benfica last month. Chelsea paid £63 million to sign left-back Marc Cucurella and a Premier League record of £103 for the World Cup winner.
Since Todd Boehly took over from Roman Abramovich as the new owner of Chelsea, The American billionaire has spent over £ 600 million in player transfers in the course of two transfer windows. Chelsea has seen the signing of 18 new players at Stamford Bridge, with 14 already making their debut for the West London Club.
Gary Neville has insisted that despite Chelsea signing talented players during those two transfer windows, he believes Chelsea overpaid for Marc Cucurella and Enzo Fernandez.
What did Gary Neville say about the Chelsea signing of Enzo Fernandez?
The Former Manchester United skipper said on the Sky Bet’s Overlap: “To me, Todd Boehly smacks of Ed Woodward when he first came to Manchester United and wanted to sign everyone. It felt like that at Chelsea in the summer, and it was chaotic.
“Marc Cucurella for £64m and Enzo Fernandez for £107m – that’s a full-back and a midfielder who will sit at the base of a three.
“The ceiling on those types of players – like Rodri, Fabinho, Casemiro – they are £50-60m positions.
“These aren’t players that are playing in the forward part of the pitch and scoring you 30 goals, so what they’re paying for the positions, what they’re getting for the money, they just seem like strange transfers.
“I’m not saying the players are no good. They could be really good and could go on to be great. But the fees for players in those positions seem mad to me.”
Meanwhile, Jamie Carragher has warned Chelsea that buying new players in the transfer market does not guarantee immediate success. He also added that Graham Potter feared for his job at Chelsea.
He said: “Spending this money hasn’t made Chelsea better yet; just look at where they are in the league. Spending money doesn’t guarantee success.
“Manchester City have spent an awful lot of money but have had great expertise with different managers.
‘Manchester United is a great example of this from the other side of it – you look at their spending over the last ten years, there’s not much of a difference between themselves and Man City.
“With Chelsea, from Graham Potter’s point of view, he must be thinking: “what is going on here?”
“You can dress it up like he’s delighted with a big squad and having all these great players coming in, but he’ll be worried for this job.”
Chelsea will be in Premier League action on Saturday against London rival West Ham United. West Ham United is also struggling in the Premier League. Graham Potter and David Moyes could face more pressure when he fails to get something out of the game.
