David Ornstein is reporting the news that we have been waiting for all day – and all month, in fact.
According to his Tweet, Chelsea have reached an “agreement in principle” for Benfica midfielder Enzo Fernandez. The player had to push hard on his end, and Benfica (to their credit) clung on until the end.
His release clause was €120m, but Chelsea didn’t want to pay the lump sum up front. That has led to days of negotiations – and in fact will mean that Chelsea end up paying significantly more than that. The final deal will be something like €125m, a UK transfer record.
🚨 Enzo Fernandez medical ongoing while clubs work as quickly as possible to get UK record transfer done (at least via deal sheet) in next 25 mins. Only hurdle paperwork + time. Benfica tried until the end to keep 22yo but he insisted on joining #CFC now @TheAthleticFC #SLBenfica https://t.co/vZVN4sHNcS
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) January 31, 2023
The transfer deadline has now passed – but with enough elements already in place, an extension to complete the details won’t be an issue. As we reported earlier, the medical team were already in Lisbon to get things done. Let’s hope they manage it.
After all that we don’t want to count our chickens too early, but it looks like it’s done.
Thanks for getting Enzo to Stamford Bridge ✌️
Only time will tell whether Fernandez is worth the money, but I have to say it’s impressive/reassuring to see this ownership team move in for the kill on our transfer targets. In the latter years of the Abramovich reign it seemed like we were so wish-washy and/or concerned about occasionally overpaying for a player that we missed out on a lot of top talent. Kante was really the last one where I thought, “right, we just landed one of the world’s best,” and an awful lot of tremendous players have changed hands in the interim where we were rumored to be in the running only find out in the end we were nowhere close.
No doubt we’ll have to rein in this spending soon enough, but it’s great to know this group has the tenacity and land a deal on a tight deadline even with a reluctant seller.
You spoke my mind here, I’m really impressed with the new owners, and I hope Potter will live up to expectations