Maresca defends Chelsea's £326m midfield spend as 'crazy' market forces City's hand

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has defended the club’s £326 million investment in three midfielders this summer, insisting the ‘crazy’ state of the transfer market made heavy spending unavoidable if the club wanted to sign the players they were targeting.

Chelsea broke multiple club records during the window, with Elliot Anderson arriving as a then-record signing before Enzo Fernandez — Maresca’s stated No.1 target — surpassed that fee at £116 million. Lille midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi also joined for £85 million as part of a sweeping squad overhaul following the departures of Rodri and Bernardo Silva.

“I don’t pay much attention to the price because I don’t pay the money. It’s more about good players,” Maresca said. “The ones who arrived here and joined us are all top players. That’s the most important thing.”

The Chelsea head coach was equally dismissive of attempts to judge signings by their price tags, pointing to wider market inflation as the context for the club’s outlay. “I don’t think it’s correct to judge players on how much we pay because the market is crazy,” he added. “Any club pays big money for any players. It’s the market and we need to adapt.”

Manchester United, by contrast, spent £155 million on three midfielders during the same window — declining to match Chelsea’s valuations on several targets — and the two clubs will offer a direct comparison of their contrasting approaches when they meet at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Maresca has been studying United closely ahead of the derby and identified their directness in transition as the primary tactical threat. “They are quite direct when they recover the ball,” he said. “They are the team in the Premier League at the moment who plays the most balls in behind. We need to be careful in terms of transitions to cover the space in behind.”

All three of Chelsea’s summer midfield arrivals have already featured for the club, and Maresca will be looking to them to control the tempo and limit United’s ability to exploit space on the counter at Old Trafford.