Former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel reportedly disagreed with owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali over the need to sign new midfielders - before the German was sacked and the club moved to sign Enzo Fernandez for £107million.
Fernandez became the record British transfer buy after he finally completed his move from Benfica to cap off a spending frenzy of around £300m from the Blues this month alone.
Boehly has wasted no time stamping his mark on the club since his £4billion takeover from Roman Abramovich last summer - splashing out around £500m on 15 players this season in a vote of confidence to manager Graham Potter.
But he and co-owner Eghbali did not see eye-to-eye with former boss Tuchel over certain transfers, with a report from the Times claiming the German was opposed to the club bringing in a new midfielder - despite their expensive outlay on Fernandez.
After Boehly had taken control at Chelsea, he began mapping out what positions he wanted to strengthen and consulted with Tuchel, the report claims.
But after identifying midfield as an area that needed to be bolstered, Tuchel said he felt he was well-stocked with N'Golo Kante as well as Mateo Kovavic, Jorginho and the returning Conor Gallager.
Instead, he wanted to focus on improving the defence having lost Antonio Rudiger to Real Madrid and Andreas Christensen to Barcelona - the report goes on - with Boehly duly granting his wish by bringing in Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli and Wesley Fofana from Leicester.
But then the American decided to act and brought in Denis Zakaria on loan on deadline day. It has been reported that Tuchel did not have any put on the midfielder's arrival and did not even recognise him when he arrived at training.
At that point, Tuchel's future was already decided and he was axed just a week later after Chelsea's 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.
After appointing Potter as his succesor, Boehly would go on to sign another central midfielder in teenager Andrey Santos before spending most of January securing a deal for record-breaking Fernandez - who was brought in after Chelsea sold Jorginho to Arsenal for £12m.
The Times claim that Fernandez was identified as the man they were looking for after the World Cup final - where he starred with Argentina to lift the trophy after beating France on penalties - and had a 'clear' determination to sign him.
Tuchel - who is still looking for his next club - spent 18 months at Chelsea and managed to win the Champions League during that time.
His successor Potter has not managed to fare any better with the team struggling down in tenth place - though he will hope that the club's spending on new arrivals in January can catapult his side up the table.
Enzo will be key to those hopes with fans optimistic he can bring an injection of quality to boost the Blues.
Speaking after signing an eight-and-a-half-year contract, Fernandez said: 'I am grateful to Chelsea and its ownership for doing everything they could to make me a part of this project,' Fernandez told Chelsea's club website.
'I'm happy and excited to join the Pride of London, to play in the best league in the world and to compete for the biggest trophies.
'I can't wait to play in front of our fans and help my teammates on and off the pitch.'