Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has infuriated former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy with some comments he has just made.
Boehly recently discussed many subjects surrounding Chelsea in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum.
Boehly spoke about Andrey Santos, for example, sharing his excitement about the Brazilian returning to the Blues in time for the Club World Cup.
He also discussed the football calendar and how many games teams are having to play each season.
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Photo by Pool/Getty Images
Danny Murphy ridicules Chelsea after decision to participate in Club World Cup
Boehly is not the only Chelsea figure who has been speaking about fixtures. Enzo Maresca recently criticised the decision to allow Real Betis to play their last league game two days earlier.
Real Betis’ game was pushed back to give them more time to prepare for the Conference League final, something that Maresca was not happy about. But Murphy thinks neither he nor Boehly can have any complaints about fixtures after Chelsea’s decision to play in the Club World Cup.
Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: “Hold on, this is a manager of Chelsea and owner of Chelsea talking about fixture congestion when they’ve accepted to play in the Club World Cup. I mean, it’s absolutely ridiculous.
“I’ll tell you what we’ll do, we’ll take the 60 million and go and play in a nonsensical, c*** tournament in the boiling hot heat when all the players should be off recuperating, ready for a long hard season, but we’ll whinge about playing a team from La Liga who are mid-table three days after a Premier League game, come on.”
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Before Chelsea head to America for the Club World Cup and take on Real Betis in the Conference League final, they have to play Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
With a place in the Champions League at stake, that is what Maresca’s focus will be on.
Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images
Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images
Todd Boehly’s exact words on fixture congestion
For Boehly, there are simply too many games being played, which is leading to more and more injuries, according to the Chelsea owner.
During his interview at the Qatar Economic Forum, which has been shared by Bloomberg, he said: “The challenge we really have is how many matches these guys are playing. The calendar’s really tight and they put in so much effort and energy, and the injuries are continuing to go up and up and up.
“We’re going to have to revisit what the calendar looks like and how much football they can actually play.”
Chelsea have had to deal with injuries this season, with the likes of Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia spending a lot of time on the sidelines. The latter is fit again, but the former remains unavailable for selection.
But given how large Chelsea’s squad is, not too many people are going to have much sympathy for them. Murphy is definitely not.