Graeme Souness has criticised Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly for five signings that the club has made in the past two seasons.
The Blues have now spent over £900 million under Boehly since the beginning of last summer, with the recent signings of Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia for a combined fee of around £175 million their latest big-money acquisitions.
The £115 million deal for Caicedo makes him the most expensive footballer in British football history - breaking the record only set by Chelsea in January after the £106.8 million signing of Enzo Fernandez.
But while Fernandez has been a major success at the Blues thus far, many other signings are still yet to fire - or have failed spectacularly.
Mykhailo Mudryk moved to Stamford Bridge from Shakhtar Donetsk for £88 million in January, but hasn't hit top form thus far.Marc Cucurella, signed from Brighton for £60 million last summer, is second choice at left-back, while Kalidou Koulibaly (£33 million) was sold to Al Ahli for almost half the price after just one season at the club.
And Souness has picked out five players in particular who he believes show that Boehly has got things wrong in the recruitment department.Writing in his column for the Daily Mail, the Liverpool legend explained: "I can't help but think that, when Todd Boehly arrived at Chelsea, all the club's football knowledge walked out the door.
"He's paid way over the odds by buying players on the basis that they were being linked with other big clubs. Look at the pattern.
"It started when he shelled out £60m for Marc Cucurella because Manchester City wanted him."He continued when he paid out £105m for Enzo Fernandez because he was linked to Real Madrid and City.
"Now, he's paid a combined £173m for Caicedo, a 21-year-old midfielder with one year's experience of the Premier League at Brighton, and Romeo Lavia, a 19-year-old with a year at Southampton, because they were both linked with Liverpool."The same question applies now as on the day when Boehly announced himself as Chelsea's sporting director: 'Who's he listening to?'
"Boehly has spent £30m on Nicolas Jackson from Villarreal, but that doesn't add up to a proven goalscorer, for me."
The Times reported that, after Liverpool had a £111 million bid accepted by Brighton for Caicedo, both Boehly and fellow co-owner Behdad Eghbali took over negotiations to try and strike a deal.
The Ecuadorian could make his debut for the Blues when they take on West Ham at the London Stadium on Sunday.
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