Ben Jacobs REVEALS LATEST on Enzo Fernandez's Chelsea Future after Man City MISS transfer deadline!

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Our senior football correspondent, obviously following the window eagerly. How are you, Ben? Hello, Ben. [00:00:05] Speaker 2: Very well. Only a few weeks and then finally I can shave and sleep. [00:00:08] Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely right. I mean, do you not have to watch the football when it starts or you're done? When the window closes, you're like, that's it. My job is done. I can hibernate. [00:00:15] Speaker 3: Would you like to shave and sleep in about 10 minutes' time? Yeah, could be the halftime show. Could be the halftime show. [00:00:21] Speaker 1: Would you make Romero to Atleti? I mean, it feels so... I wrote a column about him in The Guardian today actually saying, I still can't work out how good he is. If he is good, and I think because he was so infuriating, that I was almost annoyed watching him because I was annoyed he was going to annoy me at some point, that I actually lost any ability to objectively judge him as a footballer. [00:00:42] Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think Tottenham fans will be torn because on the one hand, he's the kind of figure that when he's playing for your club, you can get behind him. But there were so many foolish moments and red cards and lack of discipline. And it felt like a year ago he wanted out when he did a public interview and said La Liga would be a preferred destination. And now Spurs, with a revamped midfield, don't really have room for him. The player wants an Atletico Madrid. It's just a deal that suits all parties. There's obviously a debate as to whether Tottenham could have got any more money. 40 million euros, 50% sell on clause, five-year contract signed by Romero. And I think if we were speaking about Tottenham heading into the new season defensively thin and the player had left and they didn't have a replacement, that's one debate. But you're actually saying that Jampel van Hecker has come in. Mickey van der Ven has signed a new deal. Marcus Senerese has joined as well. So Romero probably was going to get less game time. And I get the sense he's not the kind of player that would want to be hanging around and being a squad player. But the bigger debate is, can he be inspired for Atleti? Because I look at Christian Romero for his country and I think, outstanding. And if he replicated that consistency throughout his tenure at Tottenham Hotspur, then we might be having a very different conversation. [00:02:00] Speaker 3: Simeone will. I mean, it's just so perfect. Do you think in his head, do you think the problem is he's bigger than Spurs? Possible. But then, do you think he expected a bigger club than Atletico to come in, Ben? [00:02:11] Speaker 2: Not necessarily. I actually feel like he wanted Atleti a year ago. And they were very close at that point to making a 50 million euros offer. It never happened. And Romero, according to sources, was very disappointed. We'll never know what would have happened if post-Ronald Arreo to Liverpool on a loan with a buy option, Barca had come in as well. But ultimately, Romero made one thing clear. He wanted to play in La Liga. He was very interested in Atletico Madrid 12 months ago. As soon as they came back, it got done very quickly. Don't forget, Inter had an agreement with Tottenham before Atleti for also 40 million euros, but no terms in place with Romero. Nothing really in the Arsenal links. Yes, discussed internally, but Tottenham would have never sold to Arsenal. So Atleti was his preferred destination. And that's why, in the end, it got done relatively quickly. [00:02:59] Speaker 1: Yeah, and actually, you have to sell well. It's something Spurs have been appalling at. So selling him and selling Spence, like it's, you know, if you sell for 40 or 30 million, you can spend much more because of the way you can deal with contracts. And money coming in counts immediately. And money going out, you can spread over a term of a contract, right? So actually, it's smart. [00:03:19] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that the fees for Spence and Romero are up for debate. And it's very easy to look at Premier League to Premier League and wonder why you can't get the same kind of money. But it's a very inflated market within the English domestic window. And when you're doing business outside, it's a little bit harder to get equivalent fees. Of course, if you look like for like, and you say Max Lacroix, Christian Romero, both had the same amount of time left on their contracts. And one went for 52 million to Chelsea and the other only for 40 million euros, albeit there's that 15% sell-on clause as well. If you look at Tottenham's own business, they've created this inflated market to the point where Jan-Paul van Hecker, with one year left on his contract, was 52 million. And so logically, if you remove the different regions and you say, who should be worth more money, Romero to a club like Atleti, or van Hecker one year left on his deal from Brighton to Spurs, my take is Romero should be more expensive. And yet, because this deal suited all parties and he went outside of the Premier League, that's why the fee was less. But ultimately, from Tottenham's point of view, they've still brought in 70 million euros for two players, and they can now invest that on likely two more attack-minded players between now and the end of the window, with both Savino and Cody Gakpo targets. [00:04:36] Speaker 3: Chelsea put a five o'clock deadline to sell Enzo Fernandes yesterday to Man City. They did not hit the deadline. Was it brinkmanship, Ben? Is it going to happen anyway? [00:04:48] Speaker 2: I feel like there's semantics at play here, because Man City don't really acknowledge a deadline. Chelsea made it clear that they told Man City there was a deadline. And Chelsea also, in May, gave this kind of almost release clause number or package to the representatives of Enzo Fernandes and said, go and get in Real Madrid if you think you can. Real issued a statement saying no. Go and get in Man City if you can. Try PSG if you like. But five o'clock on Friday, the offer of £120 million is off the table. Now, is the saga over? I'm not so sure. If Manchester City, after Tiani Rinders, goes to Alcantara in Saudi Arabia, sell Rodri to Barcelona, and that's the direction of travel, they'll have brought in roughly, for those two transfers, £120 million. And they'll try and sign two midfielders. The other is Enzo Fernandes and City feel the window's the window. Time is the time. They point to the fact that Chelsea needed the last minutes of a January window in 2023 to sign Enzo Fernandes from Benfica. So, just because £120 million is off the table, and we should reflect Chelsea's position is they expect Enzo Fernandes to now stay, but it doesn't mean City couldn't come back with a different offer, a different structure, a different package, a higher number, even potentially. So, I still think we might get a twist here. City don't think the saga is over. Chelsea expect Enzo Fernandes to stay, but as long as the window is open, I think we need to keep an eye on this one. [00:06:19] Speaker 1: What's Reinders doing? I mean, like, it was the opening game last season, I think City played Wolves, and you were like, wow, this is the new De Bruyne, and okay, he didn't have an amazing season, but your first year in the Premier League is hard. He's such a talented player. The Saudi League is nowhere for a player of that ability at this time of his career. [00:06:36] Speaker 2: Well, the Saudi League, obviously, season on season, we have to keep an eye on, because this is like Wave 2. So, 2023, very early stages, but high volume of recruitment. Now, post-World Cup, Saudi are trying to attract peak-age players, not necessarily the biggest stars, and a player like Reinders can go there and still potentially come back. He can earn well, and Al-Qadzia is a bit of an anomaly, to be honest with you, because they've got this huge brand-new stadium, the Aramco Stadium, opening in October. They're not reliant on central funding. They've got Brendan Rodgers as their manager, and they allow players to both come and go, creating very much a two-way market. And as a consequence, if you're going to go to Saudi, this is one of your safest and most ambitious bets. They've got a brand-new training facility that's opened as well, and I get it. People will say, money talks, why go to Saudi? You're playing in the Premier League, you could have gone anywhere. But remember, we're only three years into this Saudi project, and I've said this many times, that even though I totally appreciate people bash Saudi, people talk about sports washing, people say it's all about the money, the league will never end up rivaling the Premier League, and all valid points to some degree, and that's why the debate is necessary. But the Premier League really needed until 2000, starting in 1992, to become truly global, and Saudi argue that all these signings like Reinders just play a small part in slowly populating the league with better players, which means year on year, their belief is, okay, you can bash it now, you can bash it in 2023, but slowly the standard will raise to the point where people will understand what they're trying to build, which is a bit more of a patient project. Reinders won't be around by the time, as a footballer, we're in the 2034 World Cup in Saudi, and the league reaps the rewards of that. But this was just a deal, I think, that suits all parties, because Man City are revamping their midfield. It's a decent fee for them, it's a fantastic package and wage for Reinders, and now City will likely be in a position where they can attack the market, as I said before, and add not just one, but two midfielders. [00:08:40] Speaker 1: That's it, Ben, thanks for coming on. Thanks, Ben. Thanks a lot. [00:08:58] Speaker ?: Thank you.