It's a happy reunion, albeit one that's going to cost Manchester City a lot of cash. Enzo Fernandez is set to move from Chelsea to Manchester City and rejoin his former manager, Enzo Maresca, CBS Sports' own James Benge can confirm. The deal is for £125 million, which matches the British transfer record.
This comes after City have already had quite a summer making over their midfield following the departures of Tijjani Reijnders, Rodri, Nico Gonzalez and Bernardo Silva. Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi are the other new additions who will form a strong core for City's quest to snatch the title back from Arsenal. During last season, consistency from that core unit was a problem, and now there's a mixture of youth and familiarity, but it didn't come cheap, with the trio costing around $450 million.
That's something that will likely clock in at a higher transfer spend than every team in the Premier League did during the summer transfer window except Chelsea. But fees aren't what matters to City; trophies are. Last season, City captured the EFL and FA Cups, but this is a team that expects to win the Premier League and compete for a Champions League title, and these moves get them closer to that.
Already with two wins from Maresca's first two matches in charge, scoring six goals and only conceding two, there's no question that City will get stronger having a World Cup and Club World Cup winner like Fernandez in the mix will only strengthen them. Fernandez is able to play deeper in midfield or as a 10, doing a little bit of everything; the Argentine gives Maresca flexibility in how to set up his side, especially since Anderson is more of a defensive presence around him. That's needed especially early in the season while Jeremy Doku is sidelined with an injury, and Fernandez being in the squad can allow Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden to slide out to the wings if needed.
Chelsea are also able to profit from Fernandez after signing him from Benfica in 2023 as Xabi Alonso completes his own squad makeover. While Fernandez would've been good to have as part of that team, with these resources, the Blues won't have an issue securing their own targets as well.
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