{"id":20454,"date":"2026-07-23T12:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T12:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=20454"},"modified":"2026-07-23T12:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T12:15:15","slug":"chelsea-told-they-could-sign-the-perfect-replacement-for-enzo-fernandez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=20454","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Told They Could Sign &#8220;The Perfect Replacement&#8221; For Enzo Fernandez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><em>This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ex-Chelsea defender Glen Johnson has encouraged his former club to make a move for Roma star Manu Kone.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <em>Metro<\/em>Johnson said that the 25-year-old would be the \u201cperfect replacement\u201d for Enzo Fernandez:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has been excellent for France. A top midfielder, strong, physical, can use the ball well, pick a pass well; he is a top player, and to get into the French midfield you must be a good player.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Enzo leaves, he can be the perfect replacement for sure. His attributes seem to be suited to the Premier League, so I don\u2019t think he will have any issues getting used to the game at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"sra_unit\"><link rel=\"stylesheet\" id=\"block-sra\" href=\"https:\/\/chelseanews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/snack-related-articles\/dist\/css\/snack-related.min.css?230424-120159\" type=\"text\/css\" media=\"all\"\/>\n<aside class=\"sra-group sra-related-list\">\n<h2 class=\"sra-group-head\">Most Read on Chelsea News<\/h2>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Kone is on the market this summer<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"a61405551f80e72f675225f083759bb9\" v=\"f216f6d5d0b6ef819f6e02bf8357cefd\" image-id=\"fwuQ8T38PpYD\" theme=\"iy-theme\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; aspect-ratio: 1.4998125234345707; max-width: 4000px;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><br \/>Xabi Alonso\u2019s side have been <strong>tentatively linked<\/strong> with the France international in the Italian press, but the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and even Liverpool have been mentioned more frequently as suitors.<\/p>\n<p>Roma are open to offloading Kone. The Giallorossi\u2019s head coach Gian Piero Gasperini admitted earlier this month that they could be forced into a sale to comply with UEFA\u2019s Financial Fair Play rules. The Serie A side are in danger of breaking a settlement agreement that was reached after a previous breach of regulations. The player could be available for \u20ac60m (\u00a351m).<\/p>\n<p>Get a brand new Chelsea 26\/27 home Aero-FIT shirt from Fanatics here<\/p>\n<h2>Chelsea are pursuing another midfielder<\/h2>\n<p>At the moment, it looks like Bournemouth\u2019s Alex Scott is the primary target to reinforce the Blues\u2019 options in the middle of the park.<\/p>\n<p>A \u00a364m bid for the 22-year-old has already been rejected, but Xabi Alonso\u2019s side have been given some encouragement in their pursuit, with the player thought to be <strong>keen on a switch<\/strong> to Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>Scott would cost considerably more than Kone, with Bournemouth expected to hold out for a fee in the region of \u00a380m.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}