Manchester City, Chelsea in talks at last over potential Enzo Fernández deal — reports

As we head into the final day of the transfer window, the Enzo Fernández situation remains unresolved. It's only been going on for the whole summer, after all (if not longer), so there's been hardly any time to get it done, right?

Our (former?) Vice-captain has been training with the team, but he's been held out of our first three games, either at his own request or by the coach's decision or by the sporting directors', or by a combination of all. Chelsea tried to set a deadline before the start of the season for Manchester City (or any other team) to bid, but all that's done is make it even more frustrating that we're still in limbo. That deadline was then retconned to be a deadline for "bids of (at least) £120m", which just means that we now have to talk about a fee as well.

But, at long last, we are actually talking, club-to-club through official channels, as per all the usual talking heads at the transfer rumor mill content farm, like Fabrizio Romano and David Ornstein, and all the rest.

Whether these talks will lead to anything here on the final day is anyone's guess. Romano is just playing up the drama as usual, but Ornstein, speaking on BBC Sport , claims that Chelsea would only really consider doing business if we could somehow come out ahead not just in the books but on the pitch as well. And that would mean getting someone in to replace Enzo in some way, shape, or form. But links with Lamine Camara of AS Monaco, Manu Koné of AS Roma, and Alex Scott of AFC Bournemouth have all led to the same narrative dead end, and now there's hardly any time left.

Forcing players to stay is never a good idea, but sometimes it's not the worst thing.