Chelsea's transfer window was anything but a failure. They managed to sign a number of players who will be important now as well as in the future.
Their squad might just be the deepest in Europe, and what Enzo Maresca can achieve with it should be talked about much more than it is at the moment.
However, there were a few players that they were not able to sign, even after bidding for them in the last few days of the summer transfer window, and one of them played at the same club as the man in the picture.
Chelsea were looking at signing Fermin Lopez before the end of the transfer window, but they had a bid rejected. Soon after, it was said that the only way Barcelona would sell Fermin is if the player himself asked to leave, which never happened.
Lamine Yamal joked with Fermin Lopez about Chelsea interest
Lamine Yamal was asked about this situation, and he talked about the joke that cost them a key piece of business.
He said: “We were joking with Fermin about moving to England, but he is happy at Barcelona. No one wants to leave.
“We asked him about that bid from England but Fermin said he is happy here, he had no plans to leave.”
🚨🔵 Lamine Yamal on Chelsea bid for Fermín: “We were joking with Fermín about moving to England… but he's happy at Barcelona. No one wants to leave”.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 2, 2025
“We asked him about that bid from England but Fermín said he’s happy here, he had no plans to leave”, told TVE 🔵🔴 pic.twitter.com/vPyeRcbHJA
Well, that's a shame.
Fermin could have really given Chelsea a lot of bounce in the midfield. His runs into the box are actually really good, and he is a good passer and presser - good enough to work almost perfectly in a team like Chelsea's - but we guess it was never going to happen.
To be absolutely honest, Chelsea have a lot of really good midfielders, but none of them provide the off-ball runs he does from deep, and his press resistance would have helped the club a lot in situations where the Blues needed a goal late in the game.
Their midfielders currently are either defensive-minded like Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia and Dario Essugo, or they are quality passers who like to play deep like Enzo Fernandez. They needed a profile like Fermin's, but it is a shame that it didn't arrive.
Even if you don't include Fermin, there are not that many players in the market who are available and offer what the Spanish midfielder does.
We guess it does help that Chelsea have two really good attacking midfielders in Facundo Buannotte and Cole Palmer, which will help soften the blow just a little bit.