Chelsea’s £106m signing Fernandez dubbed ‘gamble’ by Graham Potter

Graham Potter has described Chelsea’s British record transfer of Enzo Fernandez as a “gamble”. Chelsea’s new owners are understood to have completed their rebuild when they paid Benfica £106.8m for the Argentina World Cup winner.

Now Potter has been given the task of moulding the new signings in a team capable of challenging for the very top honours in the game.

And he accepts that the Fernandez signing is a calculated risk.

Less than a year ago, he cost the Portuguese side just £8m, but his price soared on the back of just one season in one of the more ordinary European leagues and a handful of games in Qatar.

And since his arrival in Cobham to meet up with the club it has emerged that the language barrier is another major hurdle for the 22-year-old to clear.

“Every transfer is a gamble,” Potter admitted.”I can understand people saying that, absolutely.

“It’s like anything: he’s still a young person, he’s still a young man coming to this country.

“I’ve spoken to him. My Spanish isn’t great and his English isn’t great, so we needed a translator, but we’ll get there.

“You’ve got to adapt to the club. But we’ll help him with that and his personality is one where you think ‘Oh, I’ve got no worries about him’.

“But we’ve got a player with a huge personality. He played in the midfield for Argentina that won the World Cup.

“He has attributes that can help him play in any league in the world. He has already played well in the Champions League.

“And he’s a fighter who understands how fortunate he is. He’s got courage, he’s not afraid, he’s open-minded. He wants to play football, he wants to improve.

“If you’re playing as the No6 for Argentina and you’re playing the big games he’s played in at his age, and with the quality he’s shown, it’s not straightforward to have those attributes.”

The total cost of the Chelsea project so far has already passed the £600m mark just seven months after the new owners bought the club.

Potter, though, insists there is method to the madness.

“I can understand people think we’re mad,” he said. “I disagree with it but I understand it.

“I think what we have tried to do is be creative. We have tried to invest in the now and the future. We are in a position where we want to keep improving. That is the ambition of the club.

“What we’ve done in this window is exciting, the players that we’ve got are exciting, you can see the direction we’re trying to go in which is building for the future but at the same time quality that can compete now.”