Graeme Souness has questioned Chelsea record signing Enzo Fernandez (Pictures: Getty)

Graeme Souness has slammed Chelsea owner Todd Boehly for spending more than £100m on Enzo Fernandez and revealed who the Premier League club should have signed instead.

Argentina World Cup winner Fernandez became the most expensive signing in Premier League history during the January transfer window as he completed a £107m move from Benfica.

Fernandez, who only joined Benfica last summer in a deal worth around £10m, made his Chelsea debut in Friday’s goalless Premier League draw with Fulham.

Souness was left baffled by Chelsea’s record-breaking deal and says even spending £40m on Fernandez would have been a ‘gamble’.

Instead, the Liverpool legend believes Chelsea should have invested their cash in ‘proven Premier League player’ and fellow Argentina World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister.

Chelsea were linked with a move for the Brighton star last month but focused their attentions on Fernandez towards the end of the window and brought him to Stamford Bridge on an eight-and-a-half year deal.

Souness told the Daily Mail: ‘Can Enzo Fernandez handle the intensity of the Premier League? We don’t know. Can he handle the great big price tag? We don’t know. He is a £40m gamble at best. A young man with potential and little more.

‘When it comes to Fernandez, Chelsea have paid a premium on top of a premium on top of a premium. A premium because it is the Premier League calling. A premium because it is Chelsea. A premium because they want this player now.

‘Compare Alexis Mac Allister, his Argentina team-mate, who has played 80 games in the Premier League for Brighton and has far fewer question marks against his name.

‘Good age. Good experience. Good numbers of goals and assists. A proven Premier League player. I’m surprised that money hasn’t gone on him.

‘Time will tell how all of this ends for Graham Potter, Chelsea and Fernandez but the signs are not great, despite that enormous outlay.

‘Chelsea are a club with more money than God, but I come back to it – who is advising them on the wild prices they are paying for players?’

Souness was critical of Boehly’s strategy during his first transfer window in charge and those concerns continued in January as eight new players arrived in west London.

Chelsea spent almost £300m on new signings last month, with Fernandez joined by Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk, David Datro Fofana, Andrey Santos, Benoit Badiashile and Malo Gusto. Joao Felix was also added to Potter’s squad on loan.

‘If you are a small club without much money, struggling to make the sums add up, praying for someone to call and ask for one of your players, it is Chelsea you want to hear from right now,’ Souness added.

‘They have just paid a British record £107m for Fernandez on the strength of a mere 29 games for Benfica and a part in Argentina’s World Cup winning team, with the first £40m up front.

‘Well, on the basis of my 18 months as manager of Benfica in the late Nineties, I can say without the remotest doubt that the boy’s limited experience in what the Portuguese call the Primeira Liga tells us very little about whether he will be capable of living up to that price tag or the intensity of the Premier League.

‘Benfica are the biggest club in Portugal and are simply not confronted every week by the fierce physical challenge Chelsea always get. The team are top by eight points and have lost just once all season.

‘And as for the five games Fernandez started at the World Cup – the history of football is littered with clubs buying players after they have performed well in that tournament and getting it wrong.

‘You can never have absolute certainly when bringing in a player, whoever he might be. But you don’t want to pay out that kind of money without being as close to certain about him as you can be.

‘He has to have what it takes, physically and mentally, to meet the challenge. Big players need a big ego and a great deal of confidence to get through a high-profile move like that.’

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