Chelsea slammed for transfer oversight after getting 'carried away'
Tom Weber
- 7 Nov 2023 04:00 CST
- 3 min read
Chelsea legend Marcel Desailly has criticised his ex-club for getting carried away with their wonderkid transfers and neglecting to add experience to their team.
The Blues' transfer policy since Todd Boehly's takeover last year has been clear for all to see: target and sign the world's biggest and brightest talents. During their crazy recent transfer windows, the London club brought in a host of talent - and more wonderkids, upon turning 18, will join in the future, like Kendry Paez.
Chelsea have acquired 26 players since the summer of 2022 and only seven were over the age of 23 at the time of making the switch. In fact, this summer, Christopher Nkunku, Robert Sanchez and Axel Disasi - all of whom are 25 - were the most veteran players brought in.
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The Blues' lack of experience has shown this season as their form has been inconsistent, to say the least. It was also evident in their most recent game when it took them much longer than it should have to get the better of nine-man Tottenham, who were playing with a suicidal high line.
Former Chelsea player Marcel Desailly believes that not adding more experience was a crucial oversight by the Blues' recruitment team.
What did Desailly say?
Speaking to GFFN, the Frenchman said: "It’s very hard to criticize [Chelsea for investing]. The only thing that I’d say though is that it is an error of communication. They are carried away by the potential that each player that they’ve bought has, because they’ve forgotten about one element, knowing that to play football at the highest level...you need experience – nascent talent is never enough to presume immediate performance."
"And that’s the only thing where I’d say they’ve made a mistake, where they keep thinking, with the coach [Mauricio] Pochettino, 'No, this year we’ll be title challengers with the team that we have.' Right from the start of the season, you could see that they can’t be title challengers – it was obvious."
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"But they have put together players of great potential and have positioned themselves in terms of business...So the only thing is they need to know how to educate the supporters by telling them, 'Hang on – we’re going to have a year or two of transition but after that – wow – we’ve built up enormous potential.' But the fans and the media don’t want to hear that – they’ve seen the investment, they want immediate results."
