Graeme Souness has brutally torn into Chelsea owner Todd Boehly in the wake of the Blues' extravagant summer spending splurge.
The Londoners have spent more money than any other Premier League side in the transfer market since the American's multi-billion pound takeover was approved earlier this year.
After losing the services of Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Romelu Lukaku, Boehly has backed Thomas Tuchel to the tune of around £260million; enabling the German to acquire the likes of Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to bolster his squad.
Boehly, who has no prior football experience, has been criticised for taking charge of Chelsea's transfer business following the departures of Petr Cech and Marina Granovskaia. And Souness is adamant that the new Chelsea chief's lavish spree is a sign that he is making the same mistakes that his predecessor, Roman Abramovich, made during the early stages of his premiership.
Writing in his column for the Mail Online, Souness wrote: “Abramovich went on to be a hugely successful football club owner but on his first day at Chelsea, a few months after our encounter, he surrounded himself with so-called experts who knew nothing about football. He wasted a lot of money because of it.
“His successor, the American Todd Boehly, seems to be making the same mistakes. In his hurry and enthusiasm to get Chelsea supporters onside, he has just spent the thick end of £300million in the summer transfer market, appearing to do all the business himself. I do hope I'm wrong in that assessment.
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“Unless you have a bottomless pit, the money they have spent on Marc Cucurella makes no sense, considering Chelsea already had Marcos Alonso, Ben Chilwell and, at a push, Reece James in the same position. Is Cucurella that much of an upgrade on them? I don't think so. Chelsea only seem to have taken him because Manchester City wanted him.
“I get that they needed centre-backs because of Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen going and having 37-year-old Thiago Silva, an age when your game can fall off a cliff inside a month. But £70million for Wesley Fofana? At 21, he only brings potential."
As well as rebuilding his depleted defence, Tuchel was also desperate to land a new striker after sanctioning Lukaku's season-long return to Inter Milan. The Blues boss swooped for Aubamayeng, who thrived under him during their time together at Borussia Dortmund.
But Souness has warned Tuchel that he could come unstuck by pursuing the controversial forward, whose stint at Arsenal ended in disgrace after he was frozen out by Mikel Arteta following a number of disciplinary breaches.
Souness added: “The upside to signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on deadline day is that Chelsea now have a striker who has scored goals in the Premier League, something notoriously hard to find. The downside is that he's 33 and has a dodgy gene somewhere. Mikel Arteta did very well for Arsenal, and for his own longevity as manager, by getting Aubameyang out of the building and seems to have found an upgrade in Gabriel Jesus.
“If you want to indulge Aubameyang, then you risk heading down the same road as Arsenal did with that fool Mesut Ozil, who got in his armchair the minute Arsene Wenger put him on a ridiculously inflated salary.
“Boehly certainly seems convinced he knows what he's doing, even though Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech, who provided the football knowledge for Abramovich, have had enough and are off.”
