Gary Neville believes Chelsea could be surprise challengers next season if they bring in two top-quality additions and appoint a ‘proper’ manager.
The west Londoners have endured a miserable season and sit in 11th place in the Premier League table – 17 points adrift of the top four – while they were beaten 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie with Real Madrid.
Despite a massive transfer outlay under their new owners, which has totalled around £600million in less than a year, the Blues have continued to struggle and are onto their fourth coach of the season.
Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Bruno Saltor and Frank Lampard have all had a go in the hotseat and the club’s hierarchy are now conducting a thorough search for a new permanent manager.
If Todd Boehly and his fellow decision-makers get that appointment right, and bring in a new striker and goalkeeper, Neville feels the quality of the rest of the squad is good enough to challenge.
‘Obviously they’re short. They’re short of a manager, they’re short of a centre-forward. I think the goalkeeper could be better,’ said Neville on The Overlap.
‘But I just thought when I was watching them [against Liverpool], Wesley Fofana the centre-back I thought was fantastic, they’ve got Benoit Badiashile on the bench, Kalidou Koulibaly is obviously a half-decent defender and the two full-backs have got the ability – if they stay fit – to be the best in Ben Chilwell and Reece James.
‘I thought the midfield three of Enzo Fernandez, Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante, behind Manchester City’s of Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan, probably the best midfield as a three I’ve seen all season. They were fantastic as a three.
‘And then you’ve got Joao Felix and Kai Havertz – now if you put a centre-forward in there…
‘They had Mason Mount on the bench, they had Raheem Sterling on the bench, they had loads of others on the bench. Thiago Silva to come back.
‘I thought, if you put a proper manager there and you get a couple of decent signings, are they nearer than maybe Manchester United are?
‘When you look at Manchester United’s midfield, Marcel Sabitzer, Scott McTominay and Bruno Fernandes – obviously Casemiro has got to come back in.
‘Manchester United need a centre-forward, they need definitely some full-backs and a centre-half as well. So you’re looking at it and thinking, who is actually nearer? Liverpool look a million miles away at the moment.
‘Liverpool look like they need a little bit – a lot – of a rebuild. So I think Chelsea showed some promise [vs Liverpool], I thought they played pretty well in the game, they were by far the better team.
‘Obviously they’re well out of it at the moment, but they could be nearer than we all think when you look at some of the players they’ve got.’
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