Les Ferdinand believes that Chelsea’s approach to transfers means that they are ‘the one club you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near.’
The former Tottenham, QPR and Newcastle United striker was one of the best in the Premier League in his prime, and as the current director of football at Loftus Road, he appreciates how Todd Boehly is trying to balance the books with long contracts, but thinks it comes with too much risk.
Speaking to William Hill, he explained the potential drawbacks. He said: “I look at Chelsea and think that it’s the one club you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near at the moment.
“They got players at the club who don’t want to be there. You look at Romelu Lukaku, he got given a five-year contract and now he doesn’t want to play for the football club, they can’t get rid of him, they’ve still got to pay him.
“If you have players like that in your dressing room they are poisonous. I’m not saying he’s a bad guy, but when you’re at a football club where you longer want to be, you’re coming into the training ground with negative vibes every single day, and they’re around players that are trying to be positive. At the moment Chelsea have quite a lot of those types of players and that makes it very difficult to get anything going in the right direction.”
He held up the move for Cole Palmer as an example, despite the youngster's potential.
“I understand Chelsea’s point of view in the Cole Palmer deal,” he said. “Factor in that they’re trying to manage Financial Fair Play with these long contracts, and the reason why they do it is because the fee amortises – the price they pay for him will reduce for each year on his contract. The problem is that if after two years you change to a manager who doesn’t want Cole Palmer, he’s still sat there for another five years on high wages.
“Chelsea are hoping that as a young player he will have done enough for someone else to want to come and buy him if that situation arises, but if not you face the same problem that they have got with a few of their players at the moment.”