Real Madrid have a need for a controlling defensive midfielder who can break the lines, come up and score goals, show great technical ability, rule over the game, and mark defensively. That is a tall order, but Real Madrid require the best of the best at all positions. And since the departure of Toni Kroos, they haven't gotten the best out of a deep lying playmaker, and Aurelien Tchouameni has been a failure as Casemiro's replacement, though Madridistas are reticent to admit this because the Frenchman is a nice guy.
But just being a nice guy isn't enough to start week after week. Chelsea star Enzo Fernandez has a ton of quality - so much so that he won a World Cup then moved to the Blues for a record fee in 2022/23. Real Madrid want a player like this, and Fernandez has been openly pining for them.
It won't be easy to afford him, but the Daily Mail reports that Real Madrid could send the Blues a few players in a swap deal to bring down the price. So here are three candidates who have value to Chelsea but whom Real Madrid would be more than fine parting ways with.
DM Aurelien Tchouameni
Chelsea would likely want to replace a star defensive midfielder with another one, and there are a lot of Premier League clubs, namely Manchester United, who really value Aurelien Tchouameni. Liverpool have been after him for years, including in 2022 when he first joined Real Madrid.
Tchouameni is a good player. He has a solid head on his shoulders, he is a decent enough defender, and he can string passes together. The guy looks great on paper. In reality, he has shown no progress in his years at Real Madrid, he makes mental errors defensively, and he doesn't really add value creatively and progressively. Real Madrid can do better, and they know it, which is why players like Enzo Fernandez, Rodri, and Alexis Mac Allister are so heavily linked to them this summer.
LB Alvaro Carreras
Chelsea need center backs, but they don't like to sign declining players and probably won't go for Antonio Rudiger. But with Marc Cucurella wanting out and even on Real Madrid's radar as a possible transfer, Xabi Alonso could reuinte with Alvaro Carreras.
For some bizarre reason, Alonso loved Carreras, though he wasn't really exposed as a transfer flop until later in the season when Madrid supporters started paying closer attention. For 50 million euros, Carreras has been poor defensively and pretty overrated on offense, too. But this is the guy Alonso demanded instead of his old star Alejandro Grimaldo, and it stands to reason he would want him at Chelsea to replace Cucrella, too. Carreras is also young enough that Chelsea would go for it.
CM Eduardo Camavinga
Out of these three players, Eduardo Camavinga is the one most frequently linked with a move outside of Real Madrid, though Florentino Perez and even Jose Mourinho could save his career, but he is also the one of these three that the club would miss the most.
Camavinga was important in two Champions League titles, even as a rookie Madridista all the way back in 2021/22 as a game-changing midfielder off the bench against the world's best clubs at the very end of the biggest games. He is an electric player who works hard and is a great athlete, but he, like the others, makes mental lapses. More importantly, Real Madrid already have two better box to box midfielders in Jude Bellingham and Fede Valverde; there isn't any place for Cama as a starter, and while they would like to have him around, if Chelsea ask for Camavinga specifically, they would say yes for the profile of Enzo.
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