Graham Potter defends Chelsea’s failure to sign a proven goalscorer

Graham Potter has defended the fact that Chelsea failed to sign a proven goalscorer in January despite spending £323m on eight new players last month.

The Chelsea manager, whose team host bottom-place Southampton on Saturday, recalled the last time the Blues tried to bring in a big-money striker in Romelu Lukaku.

He said: ‘The idea that you can go to a store and buy a No 9 that fits your investment profile, not just the transfer fees, but also the salaries, is not that straightforward.

Graham Potter has defended Chelsea’s failure to sign a proven goalscorer in January despite spending £323m on eight new players last month.

The Chelsea manager, whose team host bottom-place Southampton on Saturday, recalled the last time the Blues tried to bring in a big-money striker in Romelu Lukaku.

“I don’t know if this was the case, but from the outside it looked like Chelsea had a goal-scoring problem and they spent close to £100m on a number 9 who was meant to fix the problem.” As far as I can see, it didn’t fix the problem.

Potter said it took Manchester City a while to sign Erling Haaland, and he won the Premier League last year without a recognized number 9.

“Manchester City had been asked to sign a centre-forward for the last five years and they have probably been the best team in the Premier League in that time,” he added. ‘The best way is to make the team work better.’