Chelsea Must Hold Firm on Enzo Fernandez With No £120m Bid in Sight

Chelsea’s position on Enzo Fernandez is hardening – and with Andrey Santos now heading to Manchester United, the spotlight on the Argentine’s future has never been brighter.

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The central question hanging over Stamford Bridge this summer remains whether Fernandez will be a Chelsea player when the window closes. His entourage have made no secret of his desire to leave, prompting Football London reporters Bobby Vincent and Sam Truelove to weigh in on what Chelsea should actually do – and the consensus is clear: hold firm.

Real Madrid publicly distanced themselves from a move last week with an extraordinary statement, and that effectively takes the most credible suitor off the table. Chelsea’s asking price has been set at around £120m, and the feeling at Football London is that nobody is coming close to that figure.

Chelsea’s instruction to Alonso: build around Fernandez, not without him

Vincent’s view is straightforward – with Romeo Lavia’s injury record a persistent concern, Reece James able to play in midfield but hampered by his own persistent muscular injury problems, and Dario Essugo having endured a disrupted debut season, Chelsea cannot afford to gut the middle of the park. Fernandez leaving would mean the new Chelsea manager is starting his first campaign short of quality in the engine room, which is a terrible position to put a new manager in.

Truelove, meanwhile, makes the point that Fernandez came on significantly last season and could be one of the most important players at the club. Keeping a World Cup-winning Argentina international is hardly a consolation prize, and the youth of this squad arguably needs that kind of experience and leadership around it.

Santos going to United for £50m is good money on paper – but it does put even more pressure on retaining the players who actually matter at the top end. Selling both would be a serious misstep.

We’re with both writers on this one. Unless someone comes in north of £120m – and right now there’s no indication anyone will – Fernandez stays. With Madrid’s own public denial, that door looks firmly shut. The instruction to Chelsea’s manager, effectively, is to work with what he has and build around Fernandez – and frankly, he is not a bad piece of the puzzle to start with.

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In other news…

Chelsea’s £120m asking price for Enzo Fernandez explained – and why it’s likely to hold.

Why Chelsea want Fernandez’s future resolved sooner rather than later this summer.

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