The Athletic UK’s ace David Ornstein and Chelsea’s Liam Twomey have updated the latest episode of The Athletic Football Podcast to reveal Chelsea’s signing of Enzo Fernndez.
(The following is a key overview)
1. Enzo signed a 7+1 contract with Chelsea, the same number of years as Mudick.
2. Do received a message about Enzo on December 26 of last year. The source is very good and clearly says Chelsea want to sign Enzo in the winter window and are very interested. The 2022 World Cup. If Chelsea really need to pay a penalty amount (not a trigger, they don’t want to trigger), Chelsea are willing to do that too.
But at the time, Chelsea were interested in a lot of players, so he didn’t give the scoop. Chelsea were interested in midfielders such as Lavia and Caicedo, but ultimately opted to pursue Enzo. As for Jorge Mendes’ role in the transfer, he is not Enzo’s agent, but a broker and middleman between the two sides.
DO then describes the process that led up to the deadline, including the fact that all parties involved were more optimistic.
3. LT emphasized the amortization period. The amortization of 120 million for 8 years is lower than that of 80 million for 5 years after the UEFA restriction of summer window.
4. DO emphasizes the payment method in installments, 34 million euros in the first installment and the rest in 5 installments, which will be completed in several years.
5. Jozinho’s transfer fee, according to DO, is 11 million pounds, 1 million for winning the Premier League and 1 million for qualifying for the Champions League.
6. Much of the way Chelsea have operated since Burley’s arrival, not just under Ziyech, does not fit the way European football has been run before. Deadline day Chelsea, in addition to Ziyech, but also Hutchinson, Simmons and other deals failed to lead to the outside world that Chelsea do not care about these and the next club.
7. There was another player who didn’t end up at Chelsea but was pleasantly surprised by the communication with Graham Potter.
Later, David Ornstein, who was involved in the recording of Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE, revealed more about Enzo’s dealings.
“After the World Cup final, when Enzo came off the pitch, we heard Burley telling his Chelsea team: ‘Give me that man. ‘Of course, I’m sure the team was watching Enzo throughout the World Cup, but the World Cup final, that was the real key point, the real moment of determination for Chelsea.”
He also referred to the message he received on December 26 last year in the podcast, but DO also stressed that Enzo chose Chelsea and that he had other options, so Chelsea would be “crazy” on deadline day.
It was 9.30pm before Benfica finally gave up after pleading unsuccessfully with Enzo to stay on, and it was a race against time for Chelsea to finally get the man they wanted.