Former England international Gary Lineker has poked fun at Tottenham Hotspur’s recent transfer history as he delivers a tongue-in-cheek verdict on Chelsea’s transfer ban.
Sky Sports reported on Friday that the Blues have received a two transfer window ban from FIFA after being found guilty of breaching rules about signing minors.
Lineker, though, had some tongue-in-cheek words of encouragement for Maurizio Sarri’s side, choosing to point towards Tottenham’s lack of spending in the last 12 months as reason for the Lilywhites’ London rivals not to be worried.
“Chelsea have been given a two-transfer window ban for breaching rules around the transfer of minors,” he wrote on his personal Twitter account.
“Spurs have just completed their two window ban and have been fine…..I know, it wasn’t a ban,” he finished.
Chelsea have been given a two-transfer window ban for breaching rules around the transfer of minors. Spurs have just completed their two window ban and have been fine…..I know, it wasn’t a ban.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) February 22, 2019
OPINION
Obviously Lineker is taking the mickey about Spurs’ recent reluctance to spend money in the transfer market, but he makes a good point here. Chelsea are a buying club and as such they will likely find this transfer ban extremely difficult. If players are underperforming then they tend to be shipped out of Stamford Bridge pretty quickly, or continually farmed out on loan. But the club won’t be able to replace them with anyone over the next couple of windows. Tottenham, though, have shown that you can continue to have success without constantly bringing new players in. They have a manager in Mauricio Pochettino who has shown that he can get the best out of his players and improve the footballers already at the club – he doesn’t need to bring new faces in all the time. Whether Sarri possesses that same talent remains to be seen, although who knows how long he will remain at Chelsea.