Dean Jones has claimed to The Football Terrace that Chelsea insiders are comparing Enzo Fernandez to Aurelien Tchouameni.
The Blues have reportedly reached what looks a stumbling block too big to sign the 21-year-old this month.
The Frenchman scored against England in the World Cup, after making his highly-anticipated move to an elite club last summer.
He became a Real Madrid player, with him now becoming a regular in their midfield.
Jones has claimed that the Blues have used that transfer as a measuring stick in their recent efforts to sign Fernandez from Benfica.
He said: “It’s a massive punt if Chelsea are willing to go that far, that’s huge. And now it seems that they’re not! So I don’t know exactly where we stand now because this morning hasn’t been time for this deal to progress any further.
Chelsea comparing Fernandez to Tchouameni
“I would say is that I asked someone at Chelsea how do you even start to make a comparison on what it would be worth?
“When you talk about Mudryk, people say Antony was worth this, Nunez was worth this, Grealish was worth this.
“The case that was put to me was look at Tchouameni. He moved for about £70 million and he is about the closest you can get to making a comparison in terms of age, value and talent.
“And you listen and you hear that Chelsea did offer 85 million Euros, so maybe that is the ball park figure they have gone in with to be like ‘this is what he’s actually worth’.”
Reports had been claiming for days that the Blues were discussing the final details over the signing of the World Cup winner.
However, today’s speculation is that they ended up falling way short of Benfica’s valuation, and are beginning to line up other targets in the midfield role.
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