When Chelsea finally got the green light to confirm that their £107million deadline day deal for Enzo Fernandez was on, it marked a successful conclusion to a pursuit of the World Cup winner that lasted over a month.
That moment came with the 11pm transfer window finishing line in sight after hours of revived and intense negotiations between the two clubs in the final few days of the window, paving the way for a late rush to complete all the necessary paperwork and Fernandez to board his flight from Lisbon to Farnborough airport on Wednesday morning ahead of the start of the next chapter of his rapidly-rising career.
A picture of the player beaming on board a flight to the UK will delight Chelsea fans as he arrives as the most expensive player ever bought by a British club.
This was a blockbuster transfer Chelsea first hoped would be on at the start of the window when Fernandez emerged as their leading midfield target for the January window following his exploits in Qatar where he was named young player of the tournament.
Chelsea and Benfica have agreed a £107 million deal for the Argentine midfielder (left)
Chelsea – who confirmed the deal on Wednesday – had to be patient to wrap up the move
Benfica’s position from the outset was clear. They wanted Fernandez’s release clause of around £106m paid in full, just over six months after he joined the Portuguese club from River Plate for an initial £8.5m.
Chelsea’s opening proposals, including one that was more than Fernandez’s release clause but paid in three instalments, did not satisfy Benfica.
Their manager Rodger Schmidt accused Chelsea of being ‘disrespectful’ and suggested they had driven Fernandez ‘crazy,’ intimating they had made him want to aggravate for a move, by suggesting they would pay the amount that would guarantee his sale only to shift the goalposts.
At that stage the deal looked firmly off and Chelsea considered others on their long list of midfield targets.
Among them was Brighton’s Moises Caicedo and Everton’s Amadou Onana.
Negotiations collapsed and restarted a number of times with Benfica refusing to budge
Interest was tentatively shown in Southampton’s Romeo Lavia though, for any of his admirers, that was considered more of a situation for the summer along with some of the other potential targets on their radar.
Chelsea continued to tick other tasks off their January to-do list as the month progressed.
Once the final weekend of the window…