Enzo Fernández | signs for Chelsea
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I know, but he still gave the two assists.
His IQ is inmense. His positioning, he can dictate the tempo, keep posession, play first touch, organize the attack, the defense. He's very, very complete.
I would kill to have him at United honestly. Imagine him getting the ball in games like Arsenal or Palace where either Bruno and Eriksen could do anything to stop our rivals from attacking.
Yeah was just about to post the same thing.
There's a difference in paying Benfica 120M€ after agreeing a transfer fee for that amount than there is paying Benfica 120M€ using the buy-out clause. The former spreads out the costs for the duration of the contract no matter the actual payment schedule and the latter would require club paying the full sum first to the player himself who then activates the clause and essentially joins as a 'free agent' with no amortisation costs and the full fee is accounted for the same financial year.
I'm pretty sure Benfica would accept it if we offered them the full 120M€ in one go because to them it makes feck all difference whether it's done by agreeing a transfer fee or if it's done by officially triggering the clause but for the buying club the difference is huge. They may well get 120M for Enzo whether it's now or in the summer but they're never going to get anyone to trigger that clause because there's not a club on earth who can afford a 120M€ one-off FFP hit without breaking the rules. For Benfica it seems to be the payment schedule that matters the most, not how the actual technicalities are done.
Fair enough - so what exactly is the delay then? and why have Chelsea tried to pay more than required if it's spread out anyway?
It's all beyond me
Chelsea haven't exceeded the value of the clause in actual cash yet - the package offered officially was €95m plus Ziyech plus loans for Andrey Santos and David Fofana.
Putting aside the ludicrous valuation of Ziyech there and the ridiculous overestimation of how much Benfica would value developing Chelsea's youngsters for us, this royally pissed off Rui Costa et al because Chelsea had indicated very overtly that we were willing to match the value of the clause in cash. There's been a weird misunderstanding in public about what the actual sticking points are - Benfica would accept €120m even if it's paid in 3 installments but Chelsea haven't actually offered that yet.
How much have Chelsea spent since the summer? 500m? And they don’t show any signs of slowing down 
I never understood why that was seen as an insulting offer. Ziyech isn’t overvalued at around €25m. If anything he’s undervalued at that price. Getting very talented kids like Santos and Fofana loan for 2 years as well Ziyech permanently on top of €95m? That’s an incredible offer and better than just €120m straight up cash and they were stupid for knocking that back.
Benfica won’t do Chelsea any favours here after the disrespect shown them earlier in the window.
Money talks though
They can't afford to pay Ziyech ~€6m per year is the main thing. If a club were coming in who could afford his wage comfortably €25m isn't ludicrous but in this situation it was.
And the issue with the loanees is it's in direct opposition to the way Benfica do business and stay afloat - they can't afford to be wasting minutes on other club's players when their whole business model depends on buying a bunch of youngsters from South America and weeding out the best ones.
What does it say?
Dirty cash I want you
Glad you got the old skool reference
I’m sure Boehly plays this to get himself in the zone prior to his dinner dates.
The problem is Chelsea don't actually want to pay 120M€, let alone more than that to compensate for the payment schedule. I'm pretty sure even the structure mentioned by @TheMagicFoolBus involving player exchanges is not true. At least according to Fabrizio Romano our offer never actually went past 85M€ in the previous round of negotiations.
If what Fabrizio was saying is true, the talks breaking down had nothing to do with the payment terms but the actual size of the offer instead. Apparently we're still not willing to pay the full 120M€ so if Benfica still insists on that the move is simply not going to happen.
Yeah he definitely does
Romano was mostly right about the cash part. It was supplemented by players on our end, to the point where Chelsea valued the package at the value of the clause. Benfica obviously disagreed and were (rightly) put off by Chelsea trying to pull off a bait and switch.
Fair enough. Still felt like a more than a fair enough offer even if I can understand why in Benfica’s specific situation it may not have been as appealing as it would be a club with a more normal ethos.
It's also that they felt it was sprung on them at the last moment out of the blue - they'd started to draft potential targets and budget the funds, then all of a sudden the full amount of cash we'd more or less committed wasn't there.
Fantastic isn't it, Caicedo next hopefully if we get this done.How much have Chelsea spent since the summer? 500m? And they don’t show any signs of slowing down
Now that UEFA is changing the rules to 5 years for FFP calculations starting this summer, I changed my mind, Enzo and Gusto get finished this window.
They're slowing down in the leagueHow much have Chelsea spent since the summer? 500m? And they don’t show any signs of slowing down
And they're still playing like shite and their club is still a disorganized disaster.How much have Chelsea spent since the summer? 500m? And they don’t show any signs of slowing down
How much have Chelsea spent since the summer? 500m? And they don’t show any signs of slowing down
and they’re still 10th and playing absolute terrible. Spend all they want they aren’t going anywhere soon.
How much have Chelsea spent since the summer? 500m? And they don’t show any signs of slowing down
Net spend of €480m since Todd came in.
Thuram, Enzo, Caicedo, Gusto still in their sights.
Yeehaw!
Genuine question. Does this type of spending frenzy leave you with any kind of bad taste in your mouth? I'm asking because I don't like it when United spends like crazy.
Time to call in @Plant0x84
No especially given how mad it's making opposition fans and the MSM.
I actually had empathy 10-20 years ago because I remember how jealous I was when similar happened to the likes of Blackburn and Milan but after the sheer amount of people wishing us out of business 10 months ago (something I would never wish on any club, not just because of fans losing a big part of their life but also because of how badly it will affect people whose livelihoods will suddenly go up the shitter without matchday trade or club employees who live hand to mouth) the more outrage the better.
That looks likely. Along with the FFP changes coming this summer, I expect the Chelsea owners will also be mindful of the fact that both United and Liverpool may soon be in the hands of owners who are substantially wealthier than they are, potentially leaving them to contend with at least four clubs with deeper pockets than their own. It is rational for Boehly et al to get as many transfers done in advance of that as they can.
Saudi bought Newcastle already. So Man Utd and Liverpool are fighting each other to sell themselves to Qatar/QSI?
Welp with the news about UEFA's latest bullshit suddenly I find us going back in for him to be much more feasible @WeePat
I'm not sure that FSG or the Glazers will care much where the money comes from - highest bid probably wins.
In terms of prospective buyers, we don't have enough information to go off. I'm hoping that United at least won't fall into the hands of a nation state, but if you're the current owners of Chelsea (or indeed Arsenal), you cannot help but be slightly concerned that you may soon be up against not two but four clubs backed by sovereign wealth funds, all within your own domestic league.
I guess that's one way to look at things. Do you think the hard feelings towards Chelsea from rival fans could have something to do with the sentiment among many that Chelsea have bought their way to succes - and in the proces initiated the crazy influx of money into football?
I hope not. Enzo would have to be an imbecile to sign up to Chelsea for such a long time.
On the other hand, you have a certainty of income for six/seven plus years - no matter how badly you play, or how injured you get, Chelsea will be tied in to that deal and you will get your money. It's not an unattractive prospect in an industry where the 'next big thing' can quickly become yesterday's news (just look at Havertz).
Man Utd, City and Chelsea had way more resource than other teams in EPL for the past 10 or even 20 years already. Add another QSI backed team or Newcastle made no difference to the rest of the clubs.
Benfica will accept our money and they’re gonna like it.
They will never see an offer this size for Enzo past this window.
He's going to be a star for years to come.
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