Wolverhampton Wanderers’ chief scout, Mathew Hobbs, will travel to Argentina this week to lodge a bid for River Plate midfielder Enzo Fernandez.
That’s according to Ole, who back up reports from Italy that Wolves are keen to bring the highly-rated Argentine midfielder to the Premier League.
That report, alongside a tweet from journalist César Luis Merlo, explained that Bruno Lage’s side are keen on Fernandez, and an official was being sent from Molineux to lodge a bid today.
Ole go one further, naming that official as chief scout Mathew Hobbs and saying he will arrive at the Monumental some time this week.
His ‘intention’, according to the report, is to trigger the midfielder’s €20m release clause, something that will, in turn, trigger ‘fierce competition’ for his signature.
That’s because Wolves are not the only side interested, with Benfica and AC Milan also involved in the race for the player.
Wolves’ sudden effort has ‘generated noise’ in Lisbon and even caused them to lose some optimism about a potential deal, but at the moment their proposal is ‘more tempting’ because of the sporting and economic aspects.
They can’t activate the clause but would offer €15m for 70% of the player’s rights, which could tempt River Plate, given Benfica’s history of selling players for huge profit.
The idea was initially put to River a month ago when Benfica’s sporting director met with Enzo Francescoli and Matias Patanian, a meeting that came a week after Benfica presented a five-year deal to the player, which ‘delighted’ him.
Fernandez has now ‘changed his mind’ on the idea of a transfer after insisting he was not rushing to move to Europe, and that could lead to a move happening.
Any suitors will first have to convince River, although Wolves seemingly want to avoid that by simply activating his release clause.
