Paul Merson blasts ‘worrying’ Todd Boehly comments as he claims Chelsea owner ‘bought players who did well on YouTube’

PAUL MERSON has slammed Todd Boehly’s recent comments about Chelsea as “worrying”.

Blues chief Boehly has hailed Chelsea‘s recent form as a sign things are improving at Stamford Bridge amid a turbulent two years in charge of the club.

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Chelsea have lost just one of their last 14 Premier League matches and speaking in LA at a Sportico conference on Wednesday, Boehly praised the “fluid” football under Mauricio Pochettino.

He said: “We’ve seen the last two and a half games… in the second half at Aston Villa [2-2 draw] and Tottenham [2-0 win] and West Ham [5-0 win] where we played beautiful football.

“It was so fluid, it was exactly the way we drew it up, when we came out of the back, built up and moved up the pitch, [it was] very organised and the number of shots we had.

“In those two and a half games, you could really start to see what we were working on coming together.”

And despite Chelsea adding to those three game with a 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest yesterday, Arsenal legend Paul Merson isn’t as optimistic about things in West London.

Speaking about Boehly’s comments on Sky Sports, he said: “I was quite worried with what he said, I was quite shocked.

“The way he was talking about ‘this is the was WE see it, this is what WE put together.'”

Merson, who is known to be a Chelsea fan despite his Arsenal links, went on to slam Boehly’s mega spending – suggesting their transfer targets were chosen via YouTube highlight reels.

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He added: “They just went out and bought whoever was available and [had] done well on YouTube.

“Two and a half games ago they were getting absolutely destroyed by Arsenal.

“That’s the benchmark. The benchmark is Arsenal and they are a million miles away from Arsenal and they are a million points behind Arsenal.

“You cannot get carried away with that. I didn’t like what I was hearing.

“It was like ‘that’s it now don’t need to buy any players next season. This is the team they’re gonna be alright’.

“No that won’t be the case. Won’t be the case. So for me the first thing they have to do is keep Pochettino.

“The way he was talking, Todd Boehly, was like it was him that had done it all [Chelsea’s results]. It was worrying, it was a worrying speech in my opinion.”

Chelsea were mauled 5-0 by London rivals Arsenal last month, but have certainly improved over recent weeks.

Pochettino and Co currently sit seventh in the Premier League table and still have a shot at securing European football with their remaining two fixtures against Brighton and Bournemouth.

The Blues have come under heavy criticism for under-achieving after Todd Boehly splashed over £1BILLION on players alone since taking over in May 2022.

Chelsea signings under Todd Boehly

• Moises Caicedo – £115m
• Enzo Fernandez – £106.8m
• Mykhailo Mudryk – £88.5m
• Wesley Fofana – £75m
• Marc Cucurella – £62m
• Romeo Lavia – £55m
• Christopher Nkunku – £52m
• Raheem Sterling – £47.5m
• Cole Palmer – £45m
• Axel Disasi – £38m
• Benoit Badiashile – £35m
• Kalidou Koulibaly – £33m
• Nicolas Jackson – £32m
• Noni Madueke – £29m
• Malo Gusto – £26.3m
• Robert Sanchez – £25m
• Lesley Ugochukwu – £23.5m
• Carney Chukwuemeka – £20m
• Andrey Santos – £18m
• Deivid Washington – £17.2m
• Kendry Paez – £17m
• Djordje Petrovic – £14m
• Angelo Gabriel – £13m
• Cesare Casadei – £12.6m
• Gabriel Slonina – £12m
• David Datro Fofana – £10.5m
• Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang – £10m
• Joao Felix – £9.5m (loan)
• Jimmy-Jay Morgan – £6m
• Ishe Samuels-Smith – £4m
• Denis Zakaria – loan
• Omari Hutchinson – Free transfer
• Diego Moreira – Free transfer
• Alex Matos – Free transfer