Soccer Saturday debate Chelsea's spending

Chelsea spending so far in this transfer window, I think it'd be fair to say it's it's fairly extraordinary. This is what they spent so far in this transfer window 343.9 million pounds. It is a huge amount of money. La Via coming in for 58, Casino coming in for that 115 million pounds. A British transfer record broken by Chelsea twice in the space of eight months after they signed Fernandes for 106 million. This is their summer signing since summer 2022. The total spend 928 million pounds under the new owner Todd Boley. I'm not expecting any of you to give me a sort of square mile city answer to this, but how Paul Merson are Chelsea doing this? Because Pep Guardiola said yes in his press conference. If that's Man City, he'd be getting a whole heap of trouble from the journalists. I'm only thinking it's eight year contracts and selling players that have come through the academy where when you're selling them players, it's a whole profit. So it's the only way I could say they're working out and the eight year contracts. It's the only way I can see it. I don't know. It's no good asking me about money. I thought you was asking him, how have they been so bad? I haven't spent that amount of money. To be honest, they've done terribly well to be as atrocious as it was last season. I haven't spent that money. 320 million on central midfield. It's incredible. But this man to get it right, they need a manager to get it right. And it's not the scattergun approach no more. You know, he will target these players who will come into the club and he'll make them better. But it's an incredible amount of money. Tottenham are on that list as well. People always ask the question, Tottenham don't spend enough money. They certainly do spend money. It's just who they're buying. It's not about how much, it's about who. Is it not that scattergun approach that we've seen previously from Chelsea, Michael Dawson? There's a lot more thinking and strategy behind it, despite the mind boggling figures. Well, I was just going to ask Tim there about the Laverie one, because there was talk of him going to Liverpool all summer. The Casado one, I see they've worked hard, they've gone right. That deal is going to happen regardless. And I quite like that. I think we're going to spend all the money. That was our main target. Laverie just comes from nowhere. It looked like he was going to Liverpool. Then all of a sudden, he's going to Liverpool. Chelsea will just go and resumpt them and go, we're Laverne, you can't afford to pay more. You maybe don't want to pay there. And then it comes down to the player and you start questioning. The Casado one, I quite like that. Go, no, I'm not going to just go somewhere because Liverpool have offered more than what Chelsea did. I'm sticking to my... It's something that people aren't necessarily prepared to talk about, but the London factor, how big is that in terms of these two moves potentially? Well, I think me and Sue being northerners, we can probably... I think it has an impact. I think it might sway the decision. I really do believe that. You think London to the north, where do you want to live? All these kind of things can play a factor. I do The Casado one, I've got no problem. The Laverne one, I just think it came from nowhere and Liverpool must be hurting. Chelsea have just gone, there you go, go on, we'll pay. It was talked about £50 million that Liverpool weren't going to pay. I didn't like the fact that they're going around £40 million. Pay your £50 million, get the deal done and we'll move on. And then it ends up at £58 million that Chelsea just go, we've got money there, we'll go and do it. But I think it has a factor, I do.