"You'll end up paying the Messi wage" - Gary Neville warns Chelsea about transfer policy

Gary Neville has warned Chelsea that they may still have to pay their recently signed youngsters wages akin to that of Lionel Messi despite their policy of handing them long-term contracts.

As per the Daily Mail, the Blues spent £323 million in transfer fees to sign eight players last month. Nearly all of them have been signed on extra lengthy contracts.

Mykhaylo Mudryk and Enzo Fernandez have been handed eight-and-a-half-year contracts. Benoit Badiashile's seven-and-a-half-year deal is another example of the Blues' strategy to spread the cost of signing players by handing them on extra-long deals.

Neville, however, believes that lengthy contracts don't guarantee Chelsea the financial luxury of paying their recently signed stars low wages for a long period of time. Citing the example of Mudryk, 22, he said on his podcast (h/t Football.London):

"Let's say Mykhailo (Mudryk) becomes a Lionel Messi in four years and Chelsea would sit here today and say, 'We've got him locked down for another four years on a lower wage.'

"I don't care whether he's got four years left on his contract or not, Mudryk will kick off, his agent will kick off, he'll down tools and say, 'I want more money.'

"You'll end up paying the Messi wage or you'll have a very unhappy player for the last four years who'll feel he's been exploited because he signed an eight-year contract at the age of 22.

"In football, in this country, with players coming particularly from international soil, I do not see how an eight-year contract can be honoured if the player progresses into something far greater than he is today."

Mudryk earns £97,000 a week at Stamford Bridge, almost 10 times lower than Lionel Messi's current £960,000-a-week salary at Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).

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Lionel Messi has already given his verdict on Chelsea new boy Enzo Fernandez

Chelsea spent a British-record fee of £105 million to sign Enzo Fernandez from SL Benfica on transfer deadline day last month.

The 22-year-old won the 2022 FIFA World Cup in December with Argentina, playing a total of seven games in Qatar alongside Lionel Messi. His most important moment in the competition came against Mexico on November 26.

A loss here would have eliminated La Albiceleste from the World Cup given their 2-1 group-stage defeat against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But goals from Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernandez ensured a 2-0 win for Argentina.

Praising Fernandez after the win against Mexico, the PSG playmaker said (h/t Mirror):

"I'm not surprised by Enzo. I know him and I see him train every day. He deserves [the acclaim] because he's a spectacular player."

He made his Chelsea debut in a 0-0 Premier League draw against Fulham on February 3.