Chelsea’s new owners believe decisions made by the previous regime under Roman Abramovich have cost the club in excess of £100 million, according to a leading football intermediary.
Saif Rubie, who helped orchestrate Rudiger’s move to on a free transfer earlier this summer, has also criticised Chelsea’s efforts to keep the Germany international at Stamford Bridge before his contract expired at the end of last season.
Rubie, who was pictured speaking to Chelsea’s new co-owner Todd Boehly at Stamford Bridge during the 2-1 win over on Saturday, claims the club ‘made next to no effort’ in their attempts to persuade Rudiger to stay.
He was also critical of Chelsea’s decision to sell both Marc Guehi to Crystal Palace and Fikayo Tomori to AC Milan last year.
‘The new regime had to come and pick up the pieces of decisions that were made by the old regime,’ Rubie told .
‘Things like letting the lad [Guehi] go to , who was also a defender, letting another [Tomori] go for not a lot of money to AC Milan.
‘When I spoke to the new regime, I said the old regime cost you £100 million. Do you know what they said to me? ‘More’.
‘Let me confirm this, the Real Madrid deal [for Rudiger] was the smallest deal on offer.
‘There was a club in England offering almost double the amount and a club in Europe doubling the amount.
‘I’m not going to discuss the specifics. Everyone knows there was teams interested in this player. He was one of the best in the world.’
Asked about the decision behind Rudiger’s departure, Rubie said: ‘What if I told you , and the old regime, basically made next to no effort to keep the player.
‘At the time he was very happy to stay and potentially be the captain of the club.
‘He was offered a contract that was half the amount Romelu Lukaku were earning.’
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