Barcelona have pledged two players in a potential ‘swap deal’ to take Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez to the Camp Nou, according to reports.
Chelsea have started the season in brilliant form with Enzo Maresca’s side closing the gap on leaders Liverpool to four points, although the Reds have a game in hand, after beating Tottenham 4-3 at the weekend.
The Blues weren’t expected to challenge for the Premier League title this season after having a disastrous couple of years under their new ownership.
Chelsea have spent over £1billion since a Todd Boehly-led consortium completed a deal to take over the club from Roman Abramovich in May 2022.
Maresca has managed to all their many parts moving in the same direction this season, helped partly by a good end to last season from Mauricio Pochettino.
With everything going well, Chelsea are unlikely to want to part with any of their best players, but Barcelona are looking to make a move for Fernandez.
It has taken a while for Fernandez to get up to the speed of the Premier League but there have been promising signs in recent weeks that the Argentina international is getting to grips.
And now reports in Spain claim that Barcelona sporting director Deco has ‘offered’ two players to Chelsea in the hope that they will allow Fernandez to move in the other direction.
Chelsea are ‘not willing to give’ Fernandez away and ‘only a similar offer’ to the £107m they paid to Benfica would make them ‘consider selling the Qatar World Cup winner’.
Because Barcelona can’t afford such a huge fee, ‘one idea they have in mind is to offer an exchange of pieces’ with Ferran Torres and Frenkie de Jong the two players they have in mind.
They are hoping that the inclusion of the two players would mean Chelsea midfielder Fernandez would ‘arrive much cheaper, or practically for free’.
Torres has been linked with a move to Newcastle United in recent times, while De Jong has been linked with Premier League giants Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool.
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Glen Johnson doesn’t think you can write off Chelsea for the Premier League title this season amid their brilliant run of form over the last couple of months.
Johnson told Betfred: “I don’t think you can write them off at the moment. They’re certainly taking the right steps forward and the manager’s doing the right thing by trying to take the pressure off the team and allow them to perform without it.
“They’re very consistent, they’re winning games, the hard way sometimes, but whether they can sustain it for an entire season is something we don’t know yet. At the moment, they’re right in the race.
“I think Arsenal will come good because they’ve been so consistent for the last couple of years, so I guess that Chelsea will finish third. Arsenal to finish second, Liverpool to finish first and Manchester City to finish fourth, which sounds mad to say, but that’s the way I think it’ll finish at the moment.
“City are very close to being out of the title race. As we know, Manchester City are world class, but at this moment it doesn’t look like they could sustain a title challenge. The next few weeks are going to be huge and if they don’t go on a big run now then Liverpool could go even further ahead with their game in hand. If they can add to their lead, then you believe it’ll have to be over for Manchester City. City need to go on a magical run and hope that teams do them a favour along the way.”
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Johnson added: “Chelsea just look so much more like a team. They’ve always looked like good players, but they looked like a team of individuals. Enzo looks as if he’s built them into a team, with all the players pulling in the same direction. They all charge around, they’re celebrating when they’re making certain tackles, fighting for each other and when good players do that, you get performances and you get wins.
“You need standout players like Cole Palmer, but that’s obvious. Everybody’s just raised their game by 15 per cent and they’re a group of very good players. Every one of them is capable and when good players pull together and pull in the right direction, then that’s a gamechanger at this level.
“I think it’s the best I’ve seen Enzo Fernandez play since he’s been at Chelsea and now he looks like a player. He’s getting goals, controlling games and that’s what you expect of somebody with his price-tag. He’s their captain, so he must be a good personality around the club. He’s pulling this team in the right direction.
“There’s a lot of great players in the Premier League, but considering what Cole Palmer does and the way he does it, if he’s not in everybody’s top three, then it would be interesting to see who’s above him. He keeps scoring goals at big moments in big games.”