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Manchester City have reportedly missed Chelsea’s deadline to bid for Enzo Fernandez, but Liverpool need to test the waters with an offer of their own. When Liverpool agreed a £111m fee with Brighton for Moises Caicedo, the Reds almost signed the perfect heir to Fabinho, but the Ecuadorian picked a move to Stamford Bridge instead, with the Blues paying a £115m fee to secure his playing rights. Chelsea partnered Fernandez with Caicedo to form one of the most physically and technically dominant midfield duos in the Premier League, with Chelsea’s failure to capitalise on their expertise in the engine room one of the most surprising things to happen in the league for some time. There is a plethora of reasons why this has happened, but Xabi Alonso will be licking his lips at the prospect of starting the 2026/27 season with such talented midfielders at his disposal. That is, of course, if Chelsea can hold on to Fernandez for the final two weeks of the summer window. This appears likely as Sky Sports reports that Man City missed the 5 pm deadline on Friday to make an offer for Fernandez, meaning a reunion with Enzo Maresca is now unlikely. Liverpool need Fernandez to balance their talented but flawed midfield Andoni Iraola’s aggressive football is set to star at Anfield this season, but his midfield is woefully unbalanced. Despite the technical talent of the likes of Dominik Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz, there is a worrying lack of natural ball-winning ability in the engine room Fernandez at the base of Liverpool’s midfield would solve this problem overnight, although it would require a cool £120m to do so. While it’s unlikely that Liverpool will be willing to spend £120m on Fernandez on top of the expected £125m for PSG’s Bradley Barcola, it’s the type of signing that would catapult the Reds from a likely top four finish right into the title conversation. Signing Barcola and Fernandez would take Liverpool’s spending for the 2206 summer transfer window to £334.6m after the £96.4m outlay so far to sign Victor Munoz and Jeremy Jacquet. A deal to sign Ibrahim Mbaye would take this hypothetical outlay to £368.4m. A year on from the £460m spent to sign the likes of Isak, Wirtz and Ekitike, this is a fanciful hope. That said, it’s the type of ambition that would not only catapult Liverpool into the conversation as serious contenders this summer, but also in years to come.