The idea of Chelsea having to spend again this transfer window is a ‘crass’ one, according to Mail Sport’s Dominic King. 

Chelsea’s spending since Todd Boehly completed his takeover in May 2022 has eclipsed £1billion. 

Mail Sport reported that they are reaching for the chequebook again, with Napoli’s Victor Osimhen – who has a £103m release clause – a target, though that might be more for summer. 

‘It’s like a money pit. It’s like a house that’s got problems in its foundations and you think, “alright, well, I’ll put some new windows on and it’ll look fine.” It’s not,’ he told It’s All Kicking Off. 

The idea of Chelsea spending more money this January is ‘crass’, Dominic King has argued

The football club is like a ‘money pit’ in the eyes of King and Pochettino would have been fighting for his job under Roman Abramovich

‘Just a couple of things. First of all, I think Pochettino, had the old regime been in charge, I think he would probably be clinging to his job at the minute. And I’m not advocating that he goes, but I’m just saying he would have been under the most intolerable pressure, I think, had he been in this season on a previous regime. 

‘But the idea that they’ve got to go and spend again after everything they’ve forked out in the last 18 months, it’s crass really. 

‘I was reading Simon Jordan’s column again this morning about talking about La La Land and this awfulness of the January window, and I just think the statement that it would send for Chelsea to go out and start spending again would just be awful. 

‘They’ve honestly got players that if they knocked on our front door and said, “I play for Chelsea,” I wouldn’t recognise them.’

‘I don’t know whether they’d frequent your neighbourhood!’ co-host Chris Sutton quipped.  

The Blues have been dealt a rotten hand by the injury spirits, with Reece James, Marc Cucurella, Robert Sanchez, and Romeo Lavia among those sitting games out. 

King claimed he wouldn’t even recognise some of the Chelsea players if he saw them  

But so have Liverpool, Totenham, and Manchester United, all of whom sit above them – in some cases comfortably so – in the Premier League. 

A 1-0 first-leg loss to Middlesbrough in the Carabao Cup semi-finals was the latest wound opened in a season of inconsistency after they had won five in six.  

They have the chance to make amends on January 23 at Stamford Bridge in the return leg, but Sutton is not convinced that even lifting the League Cup would atone for a despairing campaign. 

Sutton is unsure whether their ‘development squad’ has the potential to be challenging for trophies in a couple of seasons, potentially necessitating more spending.  

He said: ‘For Chelsea, if they do end up getting over the line in the League Cup, I think we’d all look at this season as a bang average season. So, for Chelsea to be the finest of wines again in a couple of seasons, I’m not so sure they’re going to get to that position unless they unless they recruit again.

Chris Sutton argued that Pochettino has not made enough progress after their spending

‘They had the plan, but it’s with this current squad – and bearing in mind, we’ve called it a development squad in the past, one of their best players is 40 this year – but with this current squad, in two seasons, can you see this squad competing against the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City for the Premier League right at the top? 

‘And I don’t think we can. And that would be my biggest concern. Then who is it on? Is it on Pochettino? Has he done well enough this season? Are they going to carry on and stick with him and have faith in him? 

‘Which, in some ways, I quite like the fact that he’s been given time to develop, but there will come a time when we saw them sack Graham Potter, when we have to look at Pochettino and think, is he getting the most out of this current group of players, this current squad? 

‘And at this moment in time, I think if we’re being fair to him, he has made a tiny bit of progress, slow progress, but it’s not enough.’