Graeme Souness says Premier League record signing will 'never reach the level'

11/07/2024 12:41 PM

Graeme Souness expects there to be an ‘enormous waste of players’ at Chelsea and says Enzo Fernandez will ‘never reach the level’ the club would have hoped for.

Chelsea’s extraordinary spending spree over the last two years has been well documented, with the Blues splashing out more than £1billion on new signings.

While some, like Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke, have proven to be shrewd additions, others have flopped and may force Chelsea to take big losses in the transfer market.

As things stand, Fernandez may fall into the latter category, with the Argentina World Cup winner losing his place in the team this season.

Signed for £105m, Fernandez became the most expensive signing in British football when he swapped Benfica for Chelsea in January 2023.

The 23-year-old has shown glimpses of his potential but has overall underwhelmed and currently finds himself behind Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia in Enzo Maresca’s pecking order.

Souness believes Fernandez is one of a number of Chelsea players who ‘won’t reach the level’ and says it is ‘very early’ to decide whether the club’s incredible transfer strategy has been a success.

Chelsea missed out on the top-four last season but look much-improved under new manager Maresca, currently sitting fourth in the Premier League and top of the Europa Conference League.

'It's still very early to pass any sort of judgement on Chelsea,' Souness said on the Three Up Front podcast.

'With their current group of players, they have a chance of finishing in the top four, but they're still some way off winning the Premier League or Champions League.

'From the current squad, I think there'll be an enormous wastage of players and a lot of them will never live up to the levels that people think they will.

'The most obvious one for me is someone who isn't even in the team at the moment, Enzo Fernandez, on whom they spent £105million.

'They've bought a load of players who won't reach the level they would've hoped.'

The Liverpool legend and respected football pundit added: ‘I think there was a different way they could've done it.

‘They just went out with a scattergun approach, buying everyone and anyone of a certain age that popped up.

'They're just storing up more problems for themselves further down the line. The case in point would be Raheem Sterling, who they've basically had to give away.

'They're going to be confronted with that same situation at least another half-a-dozen times.

‘Players will not live up to the expectation, become surplus to requirements, be sat on seven-year contracts and not want to leave Chelsea unless they get offered a big golden handshake to walk out the door.

'Chelsea will get no value for them when they sell them because they're deemed to be a failure, and they'll have to pay them to leave. That's not a sustainable business model.'

Chelsea drew 1-1 with Manchester United in their last Premier League fixture and return to league action on Sunday with another tricky clash with Arsenal.

Arsenal looked set to be Manchester City’s biggest rivals for the title at the start of the season but the Gunners have lost back-to-back games and picked up just one point in three ahead of their trip to west London.

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