Gary Neville has likened Chelsea owner Todd Boehly to infamous Manchester United transfer guru Ed Woodward.
The Blues suffered their second Premier League defeat of the season on Tuesday night after going down 2-1 to Southampton. Raheem Sterling, a summer recruit from Manchester City, opened the scoring only for Romeo Lavia and Adam Armstrong to hit back at St Mary's.
This summer has been one of turmoil at Stamford Bridge after Roman Abramovich was forced to sell the club in a quick fashion following his assets being frozen by the UK government in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. USA businessman Boehly won the battle to purchase the club but his transfer dealings have been questioned.
England international Sterling joined for £50million, with Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Gabriel Slonina, Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Sasadei all arriving for substantial fees. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Anthony Gordon, Wesley Fofana and Frenkie de Jong have all been heavily linked ahead of Thursday's deadline.
Club legend John Terry was disappointed to see the Blues lose out on the south coast with an honest assessment of the performance and the state of the team.
Terry wrote: "I hate seeing us get beat. Southampton were very good, but we look very unbalanced at the minute. I can't wait for the window to close and get our settled squad, team and formation. We miss Reece so much when he doesn't play. 22-years-old and a future captain in my opinion."
Is Todd Boehly heading the same way as Ed Woodward? Have your say here
And that led to Neville responding to the tweet by writing: "Your man Todd Woodward needs to stop wandering round like a kid in a sweet shop!"
Likening Boehly to Woodward is certainly not a compliment from Neville - having regularly gone on tirades about United's former executive vice-chairman, effectively their CEO, before he left earlier this year. Woodward oversaw one of the most disastrous periods at Old Trafford, with his unfocused transfer dealings often derided as the reason for the club's fall from the peaks of Sir Alex Ferguson.
It isn't the first time Neville has criticised Boehly's work since arriving in west London. Earlier this month he said on Sky Bet’s The Overlap.: “The American guy [Todd] Boehly, looks like he wants to play Football Manager. He’s wandering around a little bit and they’re a bit panicky now. They’re almost like bouncing around because it feels like he has to do something.
“You’re wondering, ‘Oh they’re coming in for [Frenkie] de Jong this morning’, because he feels like he has to do something, that pressure is on him. He wouldn’t have had that pressure if he’d have kept the people that have been there before and just let them operate for a year or two, but it’ll be an interesting season for Chelsea.
“I’m hearing his [Boehly] 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. He’s fronted a fund that’s paid two and a half billion quid, 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.
