Manchester City Prepares Bid for Enzo Fernandez Amid Transfer Tensions
Manchester City are preparing an opening offer for Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez, as Enzo Maresca pushes hard to reshape his midfield before the window shuts.
The Argentina international has been marked out by the City manager as a priority signing after a summer of high-profile exits ripped out the core of the champions’ engine room. City’s interest is no secret at Stamford Bridge, and Chelsea had already set an unofficial early-summer deadline for any deal at a minimum of £120m. That date came and went without an agreement.
The story hasn’t gone away. It has intensified.
City are expected to come back with a fresh attempt to land the 25-year-old before next week’s transfer deadline, testing Chelsea’s resolve and the player’s patience in what has become one of the window’s defining sagas.
If a deal is struck, Fernandez would sit among the most expensive signings in Premier League history, behind only Liverpool’s £125m move for Alexander Isak last summer. For City, it could mean smashing their own transfer record for the second time in the same window, after paying £116m to bring Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest.
This is not a luxury chase. It is a rebuild.
Four major midfielders have already left the Etihad. Tijjani Reijnders has gone to Al-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia in a £52m deal. Barcelona have taken Rodri for £65m. Newcastle have agreed a £52m fee for Nico Gonzalez. Bernardo Silva departed earlier in the summer and is now at Real Madrid. Maresca needs a new heartbeat in the middle of the pitch, and he wants it to be Fernandez.
The personal connection matters. Fernandez and Maresca retain a positive relationship from their time together at Chelsea, before Maresca’s controversial New Year’s Day exit and subsequent move to Etihad Stadium in June. That link could prove crucial as the clock ticks down.
At Chelsea, the backdrop has been turbulent. Since the club’s Champions League elimination by PSG in March, Fernandez’s relationship with the hierarchy has grown increasingly strained. He and his agent, former Paris St-Germain midfielder Javier Pastore, explored interest from Real Madrid, prompting the Spanish giants to issue a public statement denying any attempt to sign him.
New Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso tried to steady the situation in July, revealing only that he had held a private conversation with Fernandez, who joined from Benfica for £107m in 2023. Alonso refused to disclose what was said, but the need for clear-the-air talks told its own story.
The tension spilled into the stands this week. Fernandez came off the bench as a second-half substitute in Monday’s 3-2 win over Fulham, only to be booed by sections of the home support, angered by his role in England’s World Cup exit. At full-time he briefly celebrated with the away fans and his team-mates, then turned and headed straight down the tunnel, the first Chelsea player to disappear from view.
Now, with days left in the window, Manchester City are ready to test just how eager Chelsea are to keep a restless, hugely valuable asset — and how far they are willing to go to give Maresca the midfielder he wants to build around.
