Paul Merson criticizes Todd Boehly’s ‘worrying’ comments as he claims the Chelsea owner ‘bought players who did well on YouTube’

PAUL MERSON has branded Todd Boehly’s recent comments about Chelsea “worrying”.

Blues boss Boehly hailed Chelsea’s recent form as a sign that things are improving at Stamford Bridge amid a turbulent two years in charge of the club.

3

3

Chelsea have lost just one of their last 14 Premier League matches and, speaking in Los Angeles at the Sportico conference on Wednesday, Boehly praised the “fluid” football under Mauricio Pochettino.

He said: “We saw the last two and a half games… the second half at Aston Villa [2-2 draw] and Tottenham [2-0 win] and West Ham [5-0 win] where we play beautiful football.

“It was so fluid, it was exactly how we designed it, when we came from behind, built and moved up the field, [it was] very organized and the amount of photos we had.

“In these two and a half games, you could really start to see what we were working on together.”

And despite Chelsea adding to those three games with a 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest yesterday, Arsenal legend Paul Merson is not so optimistic about things in west London.

Speaking about Boehly’s comments on Sky Sports, he said: “I was quite worried about what he said, I was quite shocked.

“The way he was talking about ‘this is what WE see, this is what WE put together’.”

Merson, who is known to be a Chelsea fan despite his Arsenal links, criticized Boehly’s mega-spending – suggesting his transfer targets were picked through YouTube highlights.

BEST UK BOOKMAKER FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERSs

He added: “They just went out and bought whoever was available and [had] did well on YouTube.

“Two and a half games ago they were being completely destroyed by Arsenal.

“That’s the benchmark. The benchmark is Arsenal and they are a million miles away from Arsenal and a million points behind Arsenal.

“You can’t get carried away by this. I didn’t like what I was hearing.

“It was like ‘this is it now, I don’t need to buy any players next season. This is the team they’re going to be fine with.’

“No, it won’t be the case. It won’t be the case. So for me, the first thing they need to do is keep Pochettino.

“The way he was talking, Todd Boehly, it was like he was the one who did everything [Chelsea’s results]. It was worrying, it was a worrying speech in my opinion.”

Chelsea were beaten 5-0 by London rivals Arsenal last month but have certainly improved in recent weeks.

Pochettino and co are currently seventh in the Premier League table and still have a chance of securing European football in their remaining two games against Brighton and Bournemouth.

The Blues were heavily criticized for their poor performance following the departure of Todd Boehly £1 BILLION only on the players since he took over in May 2022.

Chelsea signings under Todd Boehly

• Moisés Caicedo – £115 million
• Enzo Fernández – £106.8 million
• Mykhailo Mudryk – £88.5 million
• Wesley Fofana – £75 million
• Marc Cucurella – £62 million
• Romeo Lavia – £55 million
• Christopher Nkunku – £52 million
• Raheem Sterling – £47.5m
• Cole Palmer – £45 million
• Axel Disasi – £38 million
• Benoit Badiashile – £35 million
• Kalidou Koulibaly – £33 million
• Nicolas Jackson – £32 million
• Noni Madueke – £29 million
• Malo Gusto – £26.3 million
• Robert Sanchez – £25 million
• Lesley Ugochukwu – £23.5m
• Carney Chukwuemeka – £20 million
• Andrey Santos – £18 million
• David Washington – £17.2 million
• Kendry Paez – £17 million
• Djordje Petrovic – £14 million
• Angelo Gabriel – £13 million
• César Casadei – £12.6 million
• Gabriel Slonina – £12 million
• David Datro Fofana – £10.5m
• Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang – £10m
• João Félix – £9.5 million (loan)
• Jimmy-Jay Morgan – £6 million
• Ishe Samuels-Smith – £4 million
• Denis Zakaria – loan
• Omari Hutchinson – free transfer
• Diego Moreira – free transfer
• Alex Matos – Free transfer