Chelsea's chances of landing a £120million pay day for Enzo Fernandez might have just increased significantly. The Blues would prefer to keep Fernandez this summer, with the midfielder clearly one of the club's better players, but interest from Real Madrid could make things difficult.
Fernandez is already said to have indicated an interest in joining the Bernabeu club, but a deal is complicated by the finances. Chelsea have made it clear they won't sell for less than £120millionm having paid just under £107million to sign the midfielder initially.
Real Madrid now more likely to pay
Real Madrid have been caught up in something of a scandal over the last 24 hours. Los Blancos published a bizarre statement to say they had submitted a 150million euro bid for Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez.
They added that Atletico considered the bid and, while they appreciated the offer, they decided to reject it. Atletico then hit back at the statement, making it clear they never even considered the offer, and that they never thanked Real Madrid for the offer, or anything close to it.
It was an embarrassing scene for Real Madrid, who were, in reality, covering up for a false promise made by Florentino Perez. It is typical of Los Blancos election presidents to promise superstar signings to try go get votes, and both candidates did the same this time around.
Florentino Perez, who maintained his seat as president, promised a 150 million euro 'Galactico', and when he won the election, he had to at least say he tried to live up to his promise. That will explain the Spanish giants posting a club statement to say a bid had been rejected, which is beyond a rarity in football.
But Atletico Madrid's well-worded response has embarrassed Real Madrid, who have been left with egg on their face while trying to cover up for their president.
Fernandez bid could follow
Whoever thought it was a good idea to post the statement was severely mistaken, and it's not impossible that it was Perez himself. The only two options from here are to pretend it never happened and try to move on as quickly as possible, hoping the football news cycle forgets about the incident, or actually going out and making a statement signing.
Real Madrid are not going to get anywhere near Alvarez or reported target Michael Olise, and so the other 'galactico'-type signing on the docket is Fernandez, who would cost around 140million euros. If that bid now arrives, it should surprise no one, given Perez's need to bounce back from the Alvarez disaster.
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