Pochettino: 'Chelsea do not compete to buy players with Liverpool'
"It is the decision of the players, they choose to go to Chelsea," Pochettino said on August 18 at a press conference before the match against West Ham in the second round of the Premier League. "It's not a competition between Chelsea and Liverpool. They want to go to Chelsea, and I hope they're feeling something special."
Chelsea overtake Liverpool to complete two big transfers this week. First, "The Blues" raised the price to 146 million and set a new record of English football to recruit Caicedo, although Liverpool had already reached an agreement of 139 million with Brighton. After that, the London team accepted to spend $ 63 million to buy Southampton's Lavia - the target of Liverpool's pursuit since the beginning of the summer.
Pochettino praised the negotiating efforts of the owners, sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley to bring in two quality recruits. The Argentina coach said it takes time to assess his fitness, ability to integrate and may not be in a hurry for the Caicedo and Lavia duo to make their debut against West Ham.
After recruiting Caicedo and Lavia, Chelsea also spent $ 45 million to break the contract between Michael Olise and Crystal Palace. But on August 17, Olise renewed her four-year contract with Crystal Palace to blow away rumors of landing at Stamford Bridge. Pochettino revealed that Chelsea are considering alternatives on the transfer floor, and left open the possibility of trusting Armando Broja - the striker who has returned from a cruciate ligament injury at the end of the 2022-2023 season.
In addition to missing Olise, Chelsea also received bad news when captain Reece James was injured in the opening match against Liverpool 1-1. On August 18, the Chelsea homepage confirmed that the English defender did not need surgery and "has begun rehabilitation after undergoing assessment for injury during training this week". Pochettino revealed that his student had a hamstring injury and will be out for a few weeks.
This summer, Chelsea sold Edouard Mendy to Saudi Pro League club Al Ahli, let Kepa Arrizabalaga go to Real Madrid on loan and spent $ 25 million to buy goalkeeper Robert Sanchez from Brighton. Pochettino confirmed Chelsea can buy more goalkeepers to compete with Sanchez. The Argentina coach said that the Chelsea first team only needed 22 or 23 players because the club did not play in the continental arena this season, and revealed that he had recruited many young players and was surprised with their performance and quality.
Since the beginning of the summer transfer window of 2023, Chelsea has spent 429 million USD to buy players, and received 279 million USD from the sale. On August 13, in the Premier League opening match at home, Chelsea drew 1-1 with Liverpool. Luis Diaz opened the scoring for the visitors, but rookie defender Alex Disasi equalized for Chelsea in the first half.
