Chelsea is unlikely to recover even half of the £40 million they paid for Alejandro Garnacho this summer, according to former Manchester United defender Paul Parker. The Argentina international left Old Trafford in a contentious manner last summer, opting to join Chelsea in a high-profile move that made the Blues his top choice.
Despite some moments of brilliance, Garnacho has largely underperformed since his transfer, struggling with consistency and rarely appearing as a key player in the starting lineup. With Xabi Alonso’s arrival, there could be more changes in the Chelsea squad this summer, as the club is reportedly open to offers for the winger they signed just a year ago.
While Chelsea has been successful in selling players at good prices in recent years, Parker believes they will find it difficult to fetch even £20 million for Garnacho this time around. “They’re not going to get 50% back,” Parker said. “£40 million for him was incredible business. It’s never going to happen again! There were people who were absolutely persecuting the club [United] for letting him go, and I’m sure those people are hanging their head in shame now.”
Parker argues that Garnacho’s main issue is a lack of care for his performances, suggesting that the winger has been caught up in his own hype since scoring a stunning bicycle kick goal against Everton in 2023. He also points to Manchester United as partially responsible for losing control of the young player at a crucial stage in his development.
“There’s a lot of Chelsea fans who know how poor he’s been. But, there’s having a bad time and there’s not really caring,” Parker continued. “We all hear the advice, don’t believe in your own hype, but he is absolutely reading between the lines and seeing something there that no one else is.
“I was there at the FA Cup semi-final and he was being booed by Leeds fans because of his relationship with Manchester United. In the end, Leeds fans stopped booing him, because they were just giving him attention which he didn’t deserve. I cannot believe he stayed on the pitch for so long, because he offered absolutely nothing.”
From the moment he scored that goal off his shin against Everton, Parker believed the media and Manchester United had gone too far, allowing Garnacho to believe in his own abilities. “There was no control on him,” he added.
“Young players were controlled by Sir Alex Ferguson. Even when you think about Sharpie [Lee Sharpe], Giggsy [Ryan Giggs], they knew and they had good pros around them who calmed them down as well, talked to them as much as they could without saying, you’re not allowed to do that.
“Did anyone tell him [Garnacho], or did he think that much of himself that he listened to no one? But Garnacho got it totally wrong, how he should conduct himself, because at the end of the day, he didn’t have a trick, he couldn’t cross the ball and he wasn’t a great finisher. So I don’t know what his strength was.
“He only went past people when they dived in. The moment they stood him up, you knew he couldn’t go past them. Playing for Chelsea, if you went through his catalogue or his reel at Chelsea, if he made 600 passes, 555 would have been backwards. That’s how bad it was.”
Previews of every single World Cup team in your inbox, featuring the players to look out for, games you shouldn’t miss and ’s big England predictions.
