Thiago Silva has indicated he feels that Chelsea's owners have taken "an incorrect step" in the transfer market since their arrival.
A consortium led by Todd Boehly has spent over £600m on new player since they replaced Roman Abramovich at the end of May, yet Chelsea have endured their worst campaign for almost a decade.
The Blues bowed out of the Champions League on Tuesday night, losing 4-0 on aggregate to Real Madrid across their two-legged quarter-final.
Meanwhile, Chelsea sit in 11th position in the Premier League table, a gap of 10 points to seventh effectively leaving Frank Lampard's side needing to win each of their remaining seven matches to have any chance of qualifying for the Europa Conference League.
Chelsea now face a chaotic period off the pitch, the club in a position where only an extravagant fire-sale of a wide array of players will be sufficient to help them meet FFP criteria.
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At the same time, Chelsea must also sign a new centre-forward in an attempt to end their staggering poor effort in the final third, their recent run seeing them score just once in six games.
After their elimination from European football's top table for the foreseeable future, Silva took the opportunity to give an honest assessment of the ownership, criticising their strategy across their 11 months at the helm.
The legendary Brazilian told TNT Sports: "I think the first step has been made. An incorrect step, but it has been made. We can't be blaming the managers if we don't take responsibility.
"It's a hard period for the club, with a lot of indecision. Change of ownership, new players arriving – we had to increase the size of the changing room because it didn't fit the size of the squad.
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"A positive point is that there are amazing players in the squad but on the other hand there are always players that are going to be unhappy. There is always going to be someone upset because not everyone can play.
"The manager can only pick 11 from a squad of 30-something – that's tough. Some can't make the squad, we signed eight in January, we need to stop and put a strategy in place otherwise next season we could make the same mistakes."
In February, the 38-year-old extended his contract to keep him in West London until 2024, although that was under the assumption that European football would be achieved.
Despite his advancing years, Silva has proven to be a key man both on and off the pitch for Chelsea since 2019, making 111 appearances in all competitions.
Darren Plant
