Manchester United legend Gary Neville had been critical of Chelsea’s summer transfer strategy.

Gary Neville had also ridiculed the signing of Marc Cucurella when Chelsea already have Ben Chilwell.

According to Gary Neville, Chelsea have been panicking in the transfer market.

“That one just stunned us today,” the former Manchester United and England defender said on Sky Sports.

“It’s a staggering amount of money and they’ve got Ben Chilwell in that position already. That’s a massive transfer that’s gone through. That’s the one [summer deal] that stands out for me.

“Seeing him in a Chelsea shirt… is he going to improve and prove to be worth that sum of money?”

When asked about Neville’s comments, Tuchel replied: “Panicking? No, I would describe it as super hard-working and learning while new on the job.

“So it’s pretty much going on, new ownership and then stepping into the transfer market is probably one of the toughest things you can do when coming from outside.

“But I have nothing but the biggest respect and compliments for both Todd and Behdad.

“I don’t know when they sleep, maybe they never sleep.

“But we have a very honest, very open, very direct line of communication and the transfers so far speak for themselves.

“We have a delay of course, we had the delay because of the sanctions and the sanctions led to the loss of key players.

“But like I said, both of the owners are involved in the daily business, they are doing a fantastic job so far and the transfer market speaks for itself.”

Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel was also hopeful to have Cucurella deal sorted out in time to feature against Everton.

Tuchel said: “It’s not done yet. I don’t want to tell you that I know nothing. The paperwork is in process and hopefully, we can get it finished before noon and Marc is our player. He is a fantastic, young player. Hungry, mobile, very intelligent player.

“He can play several positions in our system and that’s why we hope the transfer goes through. If it goes through, it opens some options like for Levi Colwill to maybe find some more game time elsewhere.”