Chelsea’s £35m signing Benoit Badiashile is ‘not good enough for the Premier League’, according to former Blues defender William Gallas.
Badiashile joined Chelsea from Monaco in January 2023 but is still struggling to establish himself as a first-team regular at Stamford Bridge.
The 23-year-old made over 100 appearances for Monaco and had started representing the France national team, not an insignificant achievement given the immense talent they possess, particularly in the centre-back position.
After arriving at Stamford Bridge midway through the 2022-23 campaign, Badiashile made 11 appearances for Chelsea during the rest of the season before featuring in half of the club’s Premier League games last term.
But the Frenchman is yet to feature in the Premier League this season, his four appearances thus far coming in the Europa Conference League and the Carabao Cup.
Gallas has not been surprised by Badiashile’s lack of minutes, however, and says he knew he was ‘not Premier League level’ after watching him in Ligue 1.
‘When I saw Benoit Badiashile at Monaco about two years ago, I knew then that he wasn’t the sort of player that would thrive in the Premier League,’ Gallas told Prime Technology.
‘He has quality, but not at Premier League level. I was really surprised when Chelsea signed him and now he is suffering on the bench because he isn’t playing.
‘He isn’t feeling good because he isn’t playing games but I don’t think he is good enough to be starting, this is when you have to look at the scouts and the people that make the signings at Chelsea.’
Badiashile signed a seven-and-a-half year contract with Chelsea when he agreed to move from Monaco at the start of 2023.
But Enzo Maresca, who became Chelsea’s manager in July, has settled on a centre-back partnership of Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana this season.
Chelsea’s defence has largely impressed, helping the Blues win four of their opening seven league games to sit fourth in the Premier League ahead of the resumption of domestic football.
Maresca’s side drew 1-1 at home to Nottingham Forest last weekend and Gallas believes that result showed why Chelsea will miss out on the top-four this season.
‘Chelsea have shown more positives than negatives this season, but they should be beating teams like Nottingham Forest at home,’ the 47-year-old added.
‘Chelsea have shown a lot of improvement in recent games and fans may have been dreaming of being comfortable in the top four, but I can’t see it.
‘I think they will miss out on the top four because it’s all about consistency, every game in the Premier League is tough and I saw players looking a bit tired.
‘Chelsea have shown that they can be strong but if you don’t win games like Nottingham Forest at home, you won’t be able to finish in the top four.’
While Gallas has a somewhat pessimistic take on Chelsea, Blues boss Maresca has said he is ‘very happy’ with the team’s progress since he took over from Mauricio Pochettino.
‘When we started the season, to think by the second international break you are fourth and the team is playing in the way we are playing, learning to play different kinds of games, for sure it’s something I am very happy,’ the Italian said.
‘Seven games, 14 points, it’s important. But for me it’s also important to see the way we got 14 points.
‘It has been different ways, different kinds of games; home, away, a team like [Forest] that sits back, a difficult team that tries to be aggressive. You use different weapons.’
Chelsea face arguably their biggest test of the season so far on Sunday when they return to action with a trip to Anfield to face early Premier League leaders Liverpool.
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