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London (AFP) – Chelsea coach Graham Potter expressed his enthusiasm for the remainder of the season following the huge sums of money that the London club spent on its contracts during the winter transfer period, most notably Argentine Enso Fernandez.
Fernandes, who was crowned in late 2022 with the Qatar World Cup title, became the most expensive player in the history of the English Premier League, following Chelsea spent 121 million euros to sign him from Benfica, Portugal, on Tuesday evening, before the closing of the winter transfer window.
The 22-year-old, who was chosen as the best young player in the World Cup in Qatar, signed a long-term contract for eight and a year and a half, ending in 2031.
Fernandes became the most expensive player in Premier League history, surpassing the record 115 million euros spent by Manchester City to sign Jack Grealish from Aston Villa a year and a half ago.
And with his contract with Fernandez, the volume of the London club’s spending in the winter transfer market exceeded more than 300 million euros, following it included eight players in total during this window, including Ukrainian Mikhailo Modric for 100 million euros (with bonuses), and the heart of the French defense Benoit Badiachel for 40 million euros, In addition to the Portuguese Joao Felix, who was transferred on loan from Atletico Madrid, Spain.
And Chelsea had previously spent more than 300 million euros in the summer transfer market, including players such as Frenchman Wesley Fofana from Leicester, Spanish Marco Cocoria from Brighton or Raheem Sterling from Manchester City, but this did not reflect positively on his results in the Premier League, as he finds himself on After 10 points from the last fourth place that qualifies for the Champions League.
“exciting test”
Potter will face a problem in the Champions League, in which the London club reached the final price, where it will face Borussia Dortmund, Germany, as it cannot register all newcomers to complete the season in the main continental competition because the law only allows it to register three of them.
However, this did not diminish the enthusiasm of the former Brighton coach, who said, “It is definitely a test for me, the staff and everyone, but it is exciting. We have a lot of good players.”
He continued, “We have to create an atmosphere where the competition is healthy and they can push each other (to shine), while understanding at the same time that there will be frustration sometimes because only 11 can play.”
And he added, “But we have a lot of important matches and we need to improve our results, and therefore it is regarding playing, supporting the team and preparing to play.”
Suddenly, Potter finds himself with an abundance of players to choose from, especially following the recovery of injured players such as Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Raheem Sterling and Robin Loftus-Cheek.
“There’s a youthful dynamism and you can see the kind of players we’ve signed,” Potter said. “We’re trying to build something for now and for the future.”
In response to criticism of Chelsea’s transfer policy, Potter said, “We had an unprecedented situation in terms of injuries. A lot of things happened. We learned a lot and we can attack the second half of the season.”
The London club compensated for some of the money it spent this season by abandoning the German Timo Werner in the first transfer window in favor of his former team Leipzig, the Italian Emerson for his neighbor West Ham, the Scottish Billy Gilmour for Brighton, all the way to the Italian Jorginho, who moved before the closing of the winter transfer window to the other neighbor Arsenal League standings leader.
© 2023 AFP
