Bayern Munich sporting director Max Eberl has made a sly dig at Chelsea over their transfer strategy.
The Premier League club have spent over €181 million on 10 new players, bringing in the likes of Pedro Neto, Joao Felix, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
A ginormous €1.5bn has been splashed out in total since Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali took over the Blues in 2022, leading to a hugely bloated first-team squad.
With over 40 senior footballers on the books, Enzo Maresca has split the team into two groups, with the ‘Bomb Squad’ training separately from the players who the head coach considers for selection on matchdays.
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Eberl referenced Chelsea‘s chaotic approach to squad building on Saturday when talking about Bayern‘s decision to sell Matthijs de Ligt to Manchester United earlier this month.
“I understand that there are fan favourites, but we don’t make decisions based on fan favourites,” the German executive explained. “We spoke to Vincent (Kompany) and made decisions regarding the squad.
“Of course we know how Matthijs performed, and we wouldn’t talk bad about him. But we made decisions regarding the defense, we wanted a left footed defender, that’s why we signed Hiroki (Ito).
“We spent money on (Michael) Olise, (Joao) Palhinha and Hiroki. So as a club you have to generate money. You can’t do like Chelsea and go into the season with 45 players. We spoke clearly to the player and made the decision, and that’s how it was.”
It’s official: Chelsea have become a byword for transfer anarchy in the football world.
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