The transfer deadline has passed without an official announcement from either Chelsea or Benfica about the transfer of Enzo Fernández being completed, but we can (probably) rest assured that there will no more shenanigans or u-turns or whatever, and that the 22-year-old will soon be posing in Chelsea Blue. But it takes time to get those poses, with just the right amount of Blue Steel.
Social media is obviously a huge thing (and seems that Chelsea official accounts are embracing it in increasingly meme-ified ways, much to yours truly’s old man annoyance), and we’re certainly going to milk Enzo’s announcement, arrival, etc. for all that we can.
Gotta pay for that fee somehow!
Chelsea have everything in place in terms of paperwork, deal sheet, medical and private jet, so there shouldn’t be an issue completing the move even if no announcement before or at 11pm #cfc https://t.co/2gDMt85gpX
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) January 31, 2023
Speaking of the fee, Benfica did confirm last night (well, 30 minutes past midnight local time) that Chelsea are paying €121m all told — reports have this in six installments total, with the first one bigger than the rest at €40m — which includes the various provisions that have to made with regards to solidarity payments as well as the 25 per cent that’s due to River Plate as per their sell-on agreement from the summer.
The €121m (£106.75m) is a new Premier League record for an incoming transfer, beating Jack Grealish’s £100m transfer from Aston Villa to Manchester City a couple seasons ago. The most expensive transfer involving a Premier League team remains Philippe Coutinho’s still hilarious €135+45m (£105+35m at the time) transfer to Barcelona from Liverpool in January 2018 — the maximum potential fee for Eden Hazard to Real Madrid was €160m, tough he probably didn’t hit all the bonuses.
Anyway, now we just wait for the announcement video, which hopefully will be more Hibsy and less Spursy.