Potter: he has warned Chelsea signings to get used to derisive chants about fees

Graham Potter has warned his expensive array of Chelsea signings to get used to chants of ‘What a waste of money!’.

The Chelsea manager says ‘all of football’ will be singing it after record £105million transfer Enzo Fernandez was taunted by Fulham fans during their goalless draw at Stamford Bridge on Friday night.

Fernandez was one of three January signings who started, playing alongside £88m Mykhailo Mudryk and £35m Benoit Badiashile.

‘It’s not just Enzo, it’s the whole team,’ said Potter. ‘It’s normal because we have spent the money we have spent and you guys aren’t going to let that go under the radar, so all of football will be singing that song.’

Despite the money spent, Chelsea did not sign an out-an-out striker and have now failed to score in four of their last six games in all competitions.

Potter defended the balance of his squad and even pointed towards the flop £100m signing of Romelu Lukaku under previous manager Thomas Tuchel.

‘We need to improve as a team,’ said Potter. ‘If you look back 18 months, Chelsea were not scoring and they thought they would spend close to £100m on a centre-forward and that would fix all the problems and it didn’t. You have to act better as a team. That’s our challenge. That’s what we need to do.’

Co-owner Todd Boehly sanctioned more than £300m of signings in January, on the back of a free-spending summer in which Chelsea spent more than £270m.

Potter said he was untroubled by the comments of Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola on Chelsea’s spending.

Klopp said he could not understand how it was possible to splash so much cash and added it was best he say nothing more ‘without his lawyer present’, while Guardiola was surprised Chelsea had spent so much.

‘Everybody is entitled to their opinion, it’s a free world and free speech is good,’ said Potter.

But the Chelsea manager knows he needs to get all these expensive signings to gel as quickly as possible.

He said, ‘I don’t think anyone could give you a timescale. If I could get a month for every time I was asked that question I would be here for five years.’