Chelsea owner Todd Boehly believes his predecessors cost the club more than £100m thanks to their past decisions, according to an intermediary who worked on one of their summer exits.
The Blues have spent around £270m on new signings this summer, with Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana among the more expensive recruits. Deadline day moves for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and loanee Denis Zakaria ensured the London side were the Premier League's biggest summer spenders, with only a fraction of the total outlay recovered through player sales.
However, Boehly is said to believe the previous regime - during the time when Roman Abramovich was owner and Marina Granovskaia worked on transfers - have had a part to play by allowing key players to leave. And Saif Rubie, who was spotted speaking to the owner during Saturday's victory over West Ham United, has shed some more light on the situation.
Chelsea spent more than £100m on new centre-backs this summer, with Fofana following Kalidou Koulibaly to Stamford Bridge. However, they were forced to look for reinforcements after losing Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen for free when the pair let their contracts run down.
Rubie - who worked on the deal to take Rudiger to Real Madrid - cited those moves and some other defensive sales when outlining Chelsea's issues. Marc Guehi and Fikayo Tomori also left Stamford Bridge in recent years, while Kurt Zouma was playing at the ground in West Ham colours after moving across London last summer.
"The new regime had to come and pick up the pieces of decisions that were made by the old regime," Rubie said, as reported by The Mail. "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"."
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Rudiger was one of the highest-profile summer losses, moving to the Bernabeu after failing to agree new terms with the Blues. And Rubie, whose client Lucas Paqueta was playing against Chelsea on Saturday, has suggested Chelsea's old regime helped make up Rudiger's mind.
"What if I told you Chelsea, and the old regime, basically made next to no effort to keep the player," he said. "At the time he was very happy to stay and potentially be the captain of the club.
Rubie said the offer made to Rudiger was "half the amount" Romelu Lukaku was earning at Chelsea. However, Lukaku himself has also moved on, rejoining Inter Milan on loan just a year after trading the San Siro for Stamford Bridge in a club-record £97.5m move.
With Timo Werner also leaving over the summer, Chelsea felt the need to spend more money on their front-line. Aubameyang and Raheem Sterling have been brought in as part of the Blues' big-spending summer, while there has been talk of more transfers in January and results could accelerate that process.
Chelsea sit sixth in the Premier League after six games, despite their victory over the weekend. Their next three league games comprise two London derbies at Fulham and Crystal Palace, either side of a home game against last season's runners-up Liverpool.
