'Enormous waste' - Chelsea's transfer policy & £107m Enzo Fernandez blasted as Graeme Souness insists expensively-assembled squad won't live up to its potential

Fernandez is part of an expensively-assembled squad at Stamford Bridge after joining for a record fee of £107 million ($138m) in 2023. The Blues also splashed out over £100m ($129m) to bring in Moises Caicedo, while huge fees have also been splashed on players such as Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, Romeo Lavia and Mykhailo Mudryk. Yet the investment is yet to yield any silverware, with the Blues finishing down in sixth place in the Premier League last season.

Chelsea have started the current campaign in more promising form, although Fernandez has come under scrutiny after dropping down the pecking order under new manager Enzo Maresca. The big-money signing has struggled for form and has also been hit with a number of off-field problems. Fernandez has been warned by Maresca that has his lofty price tag does not guarantee him a place in the team, and Souness has taken aim at the club and the players they have signed.

He told William Hill’s podcast,Three Up Front: "It’s still very early to pass any sort of judgement on Chelsea. 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 £105 million. They’ve bought a load of players who won’t reach the level they would’ve hoped.”

Souness also criticised the club's transfer policy: "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 take on FC Noah in the Conference League on Thursday and then face Arsenal at home in the Premier League before domestic action pauses once again for the final international break of the year.