Gary Neville believes it could take Chelsea ‘a couple of years’ to recover from Todd Boehly’s first transfer window in charge of the club.
A consortium led by American investor Boehly and private equity firm Clearlake Capital completed a £4.25bn takeover of Chelsea in May.
The club was previously owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich but he put it up for sale after being sanctioned over his links to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Boehly has wasted no time in settling into his new role, sacking Champions League-winning manager Thomas Tuchel earlier in the season and overseeing a £250m spending spree last summer.
Nine new signings arrived at Stamford Bridge, including £70m defender Wesley Fofana, £62m full-back Marc Cucurella, £50m forward Raheem Sterling and £34m defender Kalidou Koulibaly.
Neville believes Chelsea’s approach during the summer window was ‘crass’ and says it could set the Premier League club back ‘a couple of years’.
Chelsea initially impressed under Tuchel’s replacement Graham Potter but the Blues have lost their last four games to slip to eighth in the Premier League and out of the EFL Cup.
‘Are we going to speak about Chelsea? Todd Boehly’s project, we have to speak about Chelsea,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.
‘I got battered by Chelsea fans at the start of the season but I’m not surprised by what’s happening to Chelsea.
‘This has got all the hallmarks of a project that will take time. If you look at what happened at the start of the season, there’s no doubt that was handled with crassness, the way in which the transfer window was being handled.
‘That transfer window could take Chelsea a couple of years to recover from, if they don’t get it right.
‘Graham Potter is under big pressure, I hope he’s not and they see it through because this is a culmination of the difficulties of Roman Abramovich leaving, the new owner coming in and sticking his chest out and going around Europe thinking he can play Football Manager.
‘I’ve seen it before and it doesn’t tend to work. I think Chelsea have always been a really smart, efficient, clinical operation on recruitment so I think Chelsea are one of the big stories right now.
‘I think they will improve but there are obviously questions marks because they’re a club like Manchester United where I wonder where’s the £250m has gone.
‘It’s a quarter of a billion quid, where’s it gone, how have they enhanced the squad? There’s a lot of questions for Chelsea.’
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