So, the deadline is set. Friday 5pm. If Enzo Maresca is so keen on his reunion with Enzo Fernandez, he has until then to make his move. Oh, and it’ll be £120million please.Relations between the two club have been better. Maresca resigned as Chelsea manager in January with his heart set on the City job and his former team couldn’t even bring themselves to refer to him by name when they released a scathing statement in June to confirm they had agreed compensation that meant he could replace Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium.So, what would City get for their £120million if they choose to pay up? Well, what some might call a ‘character’.One who gets himself sent off in a World Cup final, one who tries to get his Chelsea team-mate Marc Cucurella sent off for Argentina in the same game. One who was frequently booked for dissent throughout the season, one who taunted England fans by cupping his ears after his equaliser in the World Cup semi-final, and one, most damningly, who was accused by his own club-mates of racism after live-streaming himself and team-mates chanting after Argentina won the Copa America two years ago.Maresca, though, gets a player he trusts more than any other. And if he is to succeed, he will need players he can trust. It said a lot that despite the racism row in 2024, Maresca still handed Fernandez the captain’s armband for the Premier League season opener against City.Maresca joked recently that Erling Haaland could not possibly be his captain at City because he demands that his skipper race over to him after every goal to receive fresh instructions, unless it was the captain who scored it. Haaland would clearly score too many. At Chelsea, though, even when club captain Reece James was on the pitch, Maresca would often still call Fernandez over once they scored. So, what would Manchester City get for their £120million if they choose to pay up for Enzo Fernandez? Well, what some might call a ‘character’ This is a player who got himself sent off in a World Cup final. One who tried to get his Chelsea team-mate Marc Cucurella sent off for Argentina in the same gameFernandez was so often Chelsea’s engine room. Last season, albeit one Maresca left halfway through, the club ranked rock bottom for how far their players ran in the Premier League yet Fernandez sat inside the top 10 for distance covered individually.Across Maresca’s 18 months at the club, no one played more league matches for Chelsea than Fernandez and only Mo Salah and Bruno Fernandes created more chances from open play across the division.It looks like Maresca will have to take on the most daunting succession in world football without the most influential midfielder in City’s recent history, Rodri. Barcelona are deep in talks over bringing him back to his homeland.Without the most reliable metronome in world football, Maresca is going to have to find another way to make City’s midfield tick.The club have already paid £116million for Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest but he alone isn’t enough. City are also in talks to sign Morocco’s £85million World Cup star Ayyoub Bouaddi, who is a superb ball-winner and tidy on the ball. Fernandez certainly isn’t a like-for-like replacement.Both are hugely authoritative and dominant but in different ways. Like Rodri, Fernandez is always at the heart of his team’s attacking play but more frequently at the business end of it.In his full season under Maresca in 2024-25, he played a part in 200 attacking moves that ended in a Chelsea shot, either taking it himself, creating the chance, or being a part of the build-up. Nearly 60 per cent of them were him having the shot or setting it up. Among midfielders last season, too, he ranked first for expected goals.By contrast, Rodri’s influence in the previous 2023-24 campaign, the one before he suffered his serious injury, was such that while he topped the list for involvements in his side’s attacking play, only 37 per cent of them were shots or chances he created. Across Maresca’s 18 months at the club, no one played more league matches for Chelsea than Fernandez and only Mo Salah and Bruno Fernandes created more chances from open play In Maresca’s only full season at Chelsea, Fernandez was involved in attacking play as much as any player bar Cole Palmer Rodri was also heavily involved in City’s offensive work – but earlier on in the build-upThat season, Rodri averaged more than twice as many passes as Fernandez in 2024-25 and at a far higher completion rate with more than three times as many splitting opposition defensive lines.The Chelsea man, however, was much more direct when he got the ball, playing a higher percentage of his passes forward than Rodri and more of them into the box. Unsurprisingly, Fernandez commits more fouls.As one colleague who watches Fernandez often put it: ‘Rodri is like the dishwasher, keeps everything nice and clean. Enzo then smashes those dishes.’One of the biggest differences, and one that Maresca will hope to make the most of, is Fernandez’s superb knack of crashing into the box. Rodri averages less than half a run into the penalty area per game. Fernandez usually makes at least five, and they frequently end up with him scoring.Like another Chelsea star who made the move to City, he’s Lampard-esque in his ability to find the net following his late runs into the box.See these examples below, beginning with a trip to Burnley in November, when he bursts forward late as team-mate Marc Guiu charges into the box. With Burnley’s Josh Cullen (24) distracted by the ball, Fernandez is able to sprint past on his blind side, get to the cutback before him, and strike a first-time shot into the net Against Brighton, Joao Pedro drops deep to collect the ball, drawing defenders. The ball is played out to Reece James on the right and Fernandez gets on to the end of a cross to head it in Against Liverpool at the end of the 2024-25 season, Fernandez calls for the ball from Pedro Neto, who cuts it back, by which time Fernandez is there to collect it, take a touch and scoreWhen Rodri was fit and at his peak, Guardiola prefered to use him as a single midfield pivot able to give others like Bernardo Silva the freedom to roam forward, safe in the knowledge that Rodri was there to clean up any mess. When he wasn’t fit, Guardiola would often switch to a two-man midfield.Maresca has done the same in pre-season with Mateo Kovacic and Tijjani Reijnders there against Atletico Madrid in South Korea. The former sitting, the latter primed to burst forward. It will be interesting to see which of those slots, if any, Anderson takes against Arsenal in the Community Shield on Sunday.In terms of style, Fernandez is much more similar to out-of-favour City midfielder Reijnders, who looks set to leave for Saudi side Al Qadsiah. If you compare their heat maps (below), they are both at their most content getting on the ball in the channels. Rodri proved at the World Cup that he still has what it takes to be the best player on the biggest stage, but so much of the tournament was played at a slower pace due to the heat and altitude in the United States, Canada and Mexico. That allowed him to thrive.The Premier League is a less forgiving landscape with monsters more effective these days than metronomes.So, if he is to depart, Maresca seems to have found his way to replace him. It’ll only cost them more than £300million to do it.