Gary Neville has hit out at Todd Boehly's Chelsea transfer methods, comparing the American owner's strategy to a game of Football Manager in a brutal outburst.
Chelsea are acting in an unprecedented way in the market this summer, using their new co-owner as an interim sporting director whilst the club searches for a full-time director of football and plans to restructure the club continue.
Boehly has been the public figure to the combined ownership group with Clearlake Capital and has been joined by Behdad Eghbali in ventures to some of Europe's top sides in order to conduct transfer business for Thomas Tuchel.
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There have been successes so far, with Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly both primary targets there were completed quickly, but the failure to secure a deal for Jules Kounde has left a bitter taste in the mouth as Chelsea missed out on other targets whilst pursuing the French defender.
With strong interest now in Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana and Frenkie de Jong, Tuchel is looking at up to six new first team players for next season, and Neville brutally dismissed the methods - likening it to that of a copycat.
"Look, let's be clear, firstly - they're [Chelsea] reacting to what's available and what other clubs are doing," Neville said on the Overlap YouTube channel. "Secondly, you hear his [Todd Boehly] name too much and he's too prominent.
"You look at what Manchester City and Liverpool are doing, [Txiki] Begiristain at City is their sporting director. Some people might not even know that. Some people do know that, but some people never even hear him, never even see him but they get their business done quickly and efficiently.
“When clubs are working well, you don't hear who’s signing the players, you just sign them. Chelsea have got that sort of, Manchester United under the Glazers, Ed Woodward, 'I’m taking over, I’m the man now', 'I'm going to go out and basically buy the players' and then they’re linked with every player that Barcelona want, every player that City want, every player that United want. They’re almost like bouncing around because it feels like he [Todd Boehly] has to do something."
Neville has been overtly critical of Man United's structure in recent seasons. He continued criticising Boehly's working ways, comparing the owner to the heavily-criticised job that Ed Woodward has done at Old Trafford.
"I'm hearing his name too much. It feels like, it’s not to be disrespectful, you know he’s a prominent guy, he's just bought the club and everything," Neville added. "He’s fronted a fund that's paid £2.5billion, but to get rid of all that football operation that's been unbelievable for that many years and come in and do it yourself, it does feel like Ed Woodward that to me. We’ll see it develop."
The Blues took a brave decision this summer to let influential director Marina Granovskaia leave the club. She was the brains behind some of the best negotiations that have been done for Roman Abramovich over his 19 years in charge of the club. However, the situation was complex due to her long-term working relationship with the Russian.
Petr Cech and Bruce Buck also departed the club this summer as a new board came in for Chelsea that includes Jose E. Feliciano. As the new regime took over and looked to straight away assert themselves, it also coincided with a window that was always going to be busy following their transfer sanctions in the previous months.
Chelsea had to deal with the departures of Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen as well as the likely exodus of Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Marcos Alonso, Cesar Azpilicueta, Ross Barkley, Kennedy and Michy Batshuayi. An overhaul like this is extremely rare and is tough to complete in one window with an experienced board in place, let alone a new team of workers with no prior footballing experience.
It's led to many backing London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham to finish above Tuchel's side for the coming season, and Neville's punditry partner Jamie Carragher feels that the disorganised start to the season could make life tough for Chelsea. He said: "I think the way most football clubs are run now, it’s a lot more organised, a lot more sort of, you know, who you want, it’s not sort of these panic things that used to happen in the past and people just go buy and you’d look at it.
"I look at a couple of things Chelsea do and I’m just thinking, is it a panic because you haven’t bought someone and you got to get someone. You bought Ben Chilwell for £50million and then you’re trying to get another left back, like you didn’t want them a month ago, you want them now?"
Neville sent a further warning to the Blues, stating that the club will have to prove themselves in the transfer market all over again following Abramovich's illustrious reign over the club.
"I do believe that Chelsea will have to prove themselves all over again," he added. "It took me many years whilst I was getting into television, [to look at] the idea of how Chelsea do everything, and the model.
"Looking back at Roman Abramovich's ownership, I know at the end it’s become repulsive what’s happened, but if you look back over that period of time, what an unbelievably successfully and efficient model he has developed in the end. The hard, the ruthless and the brutal.
"This guy [Todd Boehly] comes in, he looks a little bit green, a little bit naive. He’s certainly not as smart as the people Abramovich hired. But, I’m not quite sure where this is going. But, we should wait and see where this is going [under the new owner]."
Realistically, it was always going to be tough for Boehly to impress in his first summer, especially one with as many variables as this. Chelsea's new group have plans to establish a structure at the best possible opportunity and it wasn't something that could be rushed into this summer so quickly, hence the immediate backing of Tuchel's biggest priorities.
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