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Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has slammed Chelsea, saying they have gone further away from winning the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League after spending around £2 billion on transfers. He dismissed the UEFA Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup wins last season as 'Mickey Mouse' trophies.
Speaking on CBS Sports, Carragher claimed that Chelsea have not been successful in the last three years, and believes they have lost ground to Liverpool and Manchester City, while Arsenal have also overtaken them. He said:
"There's no right or wrong way going about running a football club and trying to be successful; it doesn't matter about the system. The point I'm trying to make is we can't pretend that this has been a success so far after three-and-a-half years. They came into a club and the manager was Thomas Tuchel, he'd won the Champions League at that club, at that stage under Thomas Tuchel, Manchester City and Liverpool were possibly the best two teams in world football, alongside Real Madrid, so it was very difficult for anybody to win the Premier League, but Chelsea were the third best team."
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"It wasn't Manchester United, it wasn't Arsenal, it was Chelsea. They then change that manager, they then take a team who were very close to competing and winning trophies like they did the Champions League, and they go and spend £2 billion. They are no closer, they are further away than what that manager was doing three-and-a-half years ago in terms of competing with the top teams in the Premier League, they are further away having spent two billion pounds."
Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards was also on the shot and was quick to defend the Blues. He claimed that they have done well in their approach, highlighting their progress in the league over the last three seasons, and also noting their sales to balance their spending.
Carragher was unmoved and hit back, saying they needed to prove it on the pitch and not in the balance sheet. He said:
"Are they here to transfer players or win?"
Chelsea finished 12th in the first Premier League season under the new ownership, before jumping to sixth in the next season. They were fourth last season under Enzo Maresca, who also guided them to two trophies.
Chelsea revamped squad and approach after the takeover
Chelsea changed their approach to transfers months after BlueCo, founded by Todd Boehly, Clearlake Capital, Mark Walter, and Hansjörg Wyss, took over in 2022. They signed experienced players like Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly, following suggestions from Thomas Tuchel, in the 2022 summer window, but changed their stance by the January 2023 window.
They signed Enzo Fernandez in January after his impressive FIFA World Cup performances, and they added Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia, Moises Caicedo, and others in the summer of 2023. They have now moved towards giving the young players a chance in the first team or loaning them out to their sister club, Strasbourg.
In the 2024/25 season, they set the record for being the youngest team ever in Premier League history, with an average age of just 24 years and 36 days. The record was previously held by Leeds United in 1999/20, when they finished third in the table.
