Chelsea blame old owners for massive 2022 summer spend

Chelsea signed Denis Zakaria, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Carney Chukwuemeka, Gabriel Slonina and Cesare Casadei this summer.

All of those signings meant that Chelsea spent the most money of any club in Premier League history during the 2022 summer transfer window, with a total spend of £278.4m.

And whilst Chelsea fans will be pleased to see new owners investing in the squad, it appears Todd Boehly and co. have some of an axe to grind with the old regime.

Saif Rubie, an intermediary for Antonio Rudiger, insisted Boehly’s new regime told him they blame Abramovich and Marian Granovskaia’s team for letting all those defenders go, necessitating the summer splurge.

He said: “The new regime had to come and pick up the pieces of decisions that were made by the old regime.

“Things like letting the lad (Guehi) go to Crystal Palace, who was also a defender, letting another (Tomori) go for not a lot of money to AC Milan.

“When I spoke to the new regime, I said the old regime cost you £100m. Do you know what they said to me? ‘More’.”

When asked about Rudiger’s departure, Rubie added: “What if I told you Chelsea, and the old regime, basically made next to no effort to keep the player. At the time he was very happy to stay and potentially be the captain of the club. ‘He was offered a contract that was half the amount Romelu Lukaku were earning.”

Given Marc Guehi and Fikayo Tomori could have easily replaced Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger in their squad, it is easy to see why the new owners are not too happy.

Elsewhere, Timo Livramento and Tariq Lamptey are both thriving in the PL after leaving Chelsea, whilst the Blues are likely going to have to spend big on another right-back next year to replace Cesar Azpilicueta.