Chelsea told next Enzo Fernandez is 'too expensive' in major transfer blow

Cameron Smith

• Updated: 7 Jan 2024 18:20 GMT
• 3 min read

Chelsea and Manchester United have been told that Benfica defender Antonio Silva will be “too expensive” during the January window.

Both Premier League giants have identified Silva as a possible transfer target as they look to add more reinforcements this winter.

However, transfer expert Fabrizio Romano believes that a move is extremely unlikely. He told Caught Offside: “A deal that probably won’t be happening this January, however, is one for Antonio Silva.

“Despite [the] latest rumours about Chelsea, I’m hearing no updates so far and all sources expect any deal to be more than difficult in January as Benfica don’t want to sell him.

“Manchester United have scouted him multiple times and he remains one of the players they like but not for now, he’s probably going to be too expensive in January.”

Silva has a €100 million release clause at Benfica and following Chelsea’s drawn-out pursuit of Enzo Fernandez in January 2023, it’s likely that the Portuguese club would not sanction a move unless the full release clause is met.

The Argentina international moved to Stamford Bridge for a whopping €121m last year and Silva has been heavily linked with following his former team-mate to west London.

Although Silva is evidently one of the most talented young defenders in world football, he is not a player that Chelsea should spend big on.

Why Chelsea shouldn’t spend €100m on Antonio Silva

The Blues already have a plethora of talented centre-backs on their books and signing Silva is therefore fairly unnecessary.

Furthermore, he doesn’t fix the lack of experience at Pochettino’s disposal and he would be competing with the likes of Levi Colwill, Axel Disasi, Benoit Badiashile, Wesley Fofana and Thiago Silva for a starting berth.

In addition, Bashir Humphreys and Alfie Gilchrist - two Chelsea academy stars - are both very highly-rated and could have a future in the Blues first-team at centre-back.

Silva is extremely promising, but he remains a relative unknown on the biggest stage and spending so much money on him would represent a fairly large risk as a result.

Data analytics experts SciSports also believe that staying at Benfica is currently Silva’s best option, while Chelsea only rank as his 39th best transfer option, according to their Career Advice tool.

That is largely due to the fact that Silva would face significant competition for game time at Stamford Bridge.

Given Chelsea’s pursuit of Victor Osimhen may set them back up to €120m, pursuing Silva too would be slightly foolish given the threat of Financial Fair Play backlash.