Chelsea boss, Graham Potter has defended the record-breaking transfer fee paid for Enzo Fernandez and has backed the midfielder to succeed in England.
Chelsea launched a full-court press to get Fernandez from Benfica, ultimately shelling out a British record transfer fee of £106.8 million ($131m).
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The 22-year-old has reached an agreement on an eight and a half-year contract that would keep him employed at Stamford Bridge through the year 2031.
Many critics have, however, questioned their choice to overpay for a player with less than a season of experience in European football.
Potter, on the other hand, has backed Fernandez because he thinks the World Cup champion has the “personality” to make a difference for Chelsea.
“I can understand it but every transfer is a gamble. If you look at the market for midfield players – and midfield players that haven’t won the World Cup – you’ll be quoted a lot of money. We’ve got a player with a huge personality; he played in midfield for Argentina who won the World Cup,” Potter told reporters.
“He has attributes that can help him play in any league in the world. He has already played well in the Champions League and we followed him before the World Cup, we knew about him anyway. So we’re confident about the personality,” he added.
In January, Chelsea spent about £323 million ($394 million) on new player acquisitions.
However, they are only permitted to register three new players under the Champions League squad criteria. Potter realized that in order to follow the rules, he must make some difficult choices.
“Each player brings something but we had to make a decision on the overall make-up of the group, the overall make-up of the squad, and look at it in that way. There’s no other way to articulate it, to be honest. They’re tough decisions, that’s for sure,” he admitted.
“There are challenges when you’ve got this many players in terms of what role they play because most players want to play, they want to be on the pitch, they want to help the team. When they are not, it is a challenge and it is a challenge for lots of reasons at this football club,” he further commented.
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Fernandez has already joined Chelsea’s training sessions, but it is unclear if he will play on Friday against Fulham in the west London derby at Stamford Bridge.
