Speaking on The Overlap as cited by Sportbible , Neville said that “Todd Boehly smacks of Ed Woodward when he first came to Manchester United and wanted to sign everyone.”
Neville questioned Boehly’s transfer strategy revealing that Chelsea’s business left him scratching his head.
Neville went onto say: “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.”
“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.”
Neville clearly does not understand the inflation in the transfer market, when it comes to Enzo Fernandez, Chelsea aren’t just paying for the present, they are paying for the future as well, Enzo is only 21 years old and can develop his game even more as seasons go on, even though he is very complete already.
It is also lazy analysis to assume Enzo was bought to strictly play as the number six, what makes Enzo special is his ability to do the number six role and the number eight role to a top level, once Chelsea sign a defensive midfielder in the summer, I expect Enzo to be given the license to move further forward. Perhaps Gary could have questioned Chelsea’s move to sell Jorginho instead, given the fact he thinks Enzo as a number six has a certain ceiling?
I am personally so bored of hearing the narrative around Chelsea’s spending being a frenzy. Okay, I give you the fact that the summer was a bit of a mess and it looked bad to “back Tuchel” and then sack him however if you fast forward onto this past January, each signing was identified by the scouting team or the new recruitment team and Graham Potter certainly was consulted on these deals, and even involved with some.
Let’s take a look at Benoit Badiashile, he was recommended by Chelsea’s new co sporting director Lawrence Stewart, who has just joined from Monaco. Malo Gusto, one of the most coveted young right backs in the world, Andrey Santos, scouted by the club, Mykhailo Mudryk, played around to be a hijack but in reality Chelsea had been an interested club since August 2022, as revealed by Fabrizio Romano. These are just some examples, I personally don’t think there has been any element of panic buying or Boehly being that kid in a sweet shop, at least this year.