Chelsea made a €140m deal with the devil - now they're paying the price

18 Aug 2026 15:59 BST | 5 min read

Tom Weber | Writer

Multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer.

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Chelsea have reportedly hired superagent Jorge Mendes to resolve their Enzo Fernandez crisis, but this gambit is at risk of backfiring and costing them not only the midfielder but also winger Pedro Neto.

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The saga surrounding the Argentine international has continued to rumble on in recent days, despite Man City's refusal to meet Chelsea's Friday deadline last week. The Blues demanded that an offer worth €140 million be made to sign Fernandez, but this never materialised.

Publicly, Chelsea insist that the matter is now closed and that Fernandez is going nowhere this summer. Behind the scenes, however, they are aware that City could yet make a strong push for the wantaway 25-year-old.

Current ETV

Enzo Fernández

M, DM (C)

Chelsea

Enzo Fernández

M, DM (C)

Chelsea

ETV Range

€83.3M - €101.8M

Having already signed Elliot Anderson for €135m, and with a deal to sign Ayyoub Bouaddi for potentially €100m imminent, City did not have the financial wiggle room to make an offer for Fernandez last week.

However, the sales of Rodri and Tijjani Reijnders have been agreed in recent days, meaning that City may feel they can now afford to spend big on Fernandez. They could yet return with an offer for the Argentine.

Chelsea let the devil in with Mendes decision

With Chelsea keen to resolve this mess as soon as possible and finalise their squad for the new season, AS reported on Monday that they had hired superagent Jorge Mendes to "expedite" Fernandez's potential exit.

The thinking from Behdad Eghbali allegedly is that since the Portuguese had played a crucial role in the signing of the midfielder in January 2023, he could now be of service as a mediator between Chelsea, City and Fernandez's camp, led by agent Javier Pastore.

However, by hooking up with Mendes, Eghbali and Chelsea may have made a deal with the devil. The superagent also represents Pedro Neto via his company Gestifute, and he seems to be trying to force through a move to Saudi Arabia.

An agreement on personal terms is reportedly already in place with Riyadh giants Al-Hilal. Despite Chelsea slapping a price tag in the region of €100m on Neto's head - because they don't want to sell this late in the window - a move for the 26-year-old is supposedly getting "closer," according to Nicolo Schira.

Last summer, Mendes was accused of pushing promising Porto wonderkid Rodrigo Mora to Al-Ittihad so that he could allegedly pocket a handsome commission. He might be doing the same with Neto now.

Friday's print edition of Gazzetta dello Sport has added fuel to this speculation by claiming that an unnamed agent is trying to engineer a move of AC Milan outcast Rafael Leao to Chelsea as a replacement for Neto.

Sport Witness posits that the representative in question is "likely Jorge Mendes," a claim that is lent credence by Sacha Tavolieri's reporting that the Portuguese agent has also "offered" his compatriot to AS Roma.

Mendes is not formally Leao's representative, but it has been known for some time that he has received a mandate from the player and his family to handle his next transfer. Chelsea have a historic interest in Leao, and he is available at a knockdown price right now.

Still, it seems a longshot to suggest that the Blues could actually sign the winger this summer, given that he has endured quite a dramatic fall from grace over the past two seasons.

Nevertheless, even if Chelsea avoid the possibly problematic signing of Leao, they may live to regret their decision to join forces with Mendes if they end up without Fernandez and Neto come the end of Deadline Day.