Real Madrid have identified Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez as their primary midfield target this summer as the club prepares to prioritise a playmaker in the transfer market. While president Florentino P\u00e9rez has stirred debate about a possible “Gal\u00e1ctico” forward signing such as Michael Olise or Juli\u00e1n Alvarez, remaining funds are expected to be directed toward a deep-lying creator.<\/p>\n
The Athletic reports Fern\u00e1ndez is Mourinho\u2019s \u201cpreferred choice\u201d to boost the centre of the pitch, with Chelsea said to be open to selling the 25-year-old Argentina international for around \u00a3120 million. Fern\u00e1ndez\u2014who got himself into trouble at Chelsea previously for openly flirting with Real Madrid\u2014has long been admired at the Bernab\u00e9u, and the player is reportedly ready to leave Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n
Other midfield options under consideration include Matheus Fernandes, Ayyoub Bouaddi and Kees Smit, but Fern\u00e1ndez is widely viewed as the top candidate. The urgency to fund a large transfer means Madrid are expected to approve at least one significant departure. Dani Ceballos, Eduardo Camavinga and Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni are all listed as possible exits, with Tchouam\u00e9ni the likeliest to command a fee large enough to offset a deal. AS suggest the Frenchman, who has already attracted interest from Manchester United this summer, could be the club\u2019s “major sale”.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez has been deployed in varied roles for Chelsea this season, combining deeper duties with more advanced positions and contributing 15 goals in all competitions. With Argentina he operates as a two-way, box-to-box midfielder, providing support to Lionel Messi and the attacking line.<\/p>\n
At Real Madrid he would be expected to operate as one of two pivots behind Jude Bellingham in Mourinho\u2019s preferred 4\u20132\u20133\u20131, although debate remains over who would provide the more defensive balance should Tchouam\u00e9ni depart. The club\u2019s lack of a clear natural defensive midfielder complicates squad planning.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Madrid\u2019s interest in Fern\u00e1ndez appears to have affected Nico Paz. After a season on loan at Como, a \u20ac9 million buyback had been anticipated, but AS now reports Paz has been told he can expect to remain in Italy for another year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Real Madrid move for Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez may force a Tchouam\u00e9ni sale as Nico Paz loan is extended again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,987],"tags":[983,1162,1595],"class_list":["post-15314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-real-madrid","tag-agents","tag-analytics","tag-aurelien-tchouameni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}