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Chelsea: Jordan tears into recent club spending
Simon Jordan has labelled Chelsea’s recent transfer spending as ‘unprecedented’ following their bid for Benfica’s Enzo Fernandez.
The Verdict: Premier League-record bid
According to Sky Sports, Graham Potter’s side have tabled a £105.6m bid for the Argentina midfielder, which would be a Premier League record.
The 22-year-old won the Young Player of the Tournament at the World Cup last winter as his country went on to lift the trophy.
Fellow Premier League club Liverpool were also linked with the player following the conclusion of the World Cup, with The Mirror even claiming last month that Fernandez’s preferred destination would be a switch to Merseyside.
However, it would seem the Reds were not keen on meeting the Benfica man’s release clause.
The Latest: ‘Unprecedented’ spending
Jordan tore into Chelsea’s spending habits when talking on TalkSport, but he can’t see this going on in the long term.
He stated: “I’m not surprised by it [Chelsea’s spending] because in part of their thinking is that Chelsea is a vehicle that markets well, and so by being very active in transfer markets, it’s part of the marketing of a football club in this day and age.
“What would be better if Chelsea weren’t stinking out the league right now, that would be far more pleasing for Todd Boehly.
“I cannot see that Chelsea continue this pattern season on season. It may well be they’re buying hard and fast in their first season, establishing where they are in the market and giving themself a base where they don’t have to spend £200m every transfer window, but this is unprecedented stuff.”
The Verdict: Questionable fees
We believe that in the last two windows, Chelsea have spent astronomical fees on players and the results have been mostly ineffective.
As per Transfermarkt, the Blues spent just under €282m (£249m) last summer, but their poor league form in the 2022/23 campaign has led them to continue to spend in January.
This month, they’ve spent close to what they did in the previous window, and should Fernandez end up joining the Blues, it will surpass that amount.
Regardless of whether Chelsea are actually allowed to pay those types of prices in such a short space of time, the recruitment since Todd Boehly took charge of the club was very questionable in the first window, and with the power of hindsight, it’s clear to see.
This month is not an exception, either, as the potential Fernandez transfer particularly raises a lot of question marks, as this is a player who has plenty of talent, no doubt about that – Lionel Messi himself is certainly of that opinion.
But for a fee of over £100m for a player who is relatively new to the top level of European football is a big gamble in our view.
