When a Premier League club makes a bid of £45 million for a midfielder, as West Ham United are reported to have done during the summer transfer window, they tend to have pretty lofty expectations for the player in question.
And, OK, a £45 million investment is not quite the statement it used to be. Even eye-watering fees are occasionally only enough to get raw potential these days.
West Ham United paid around £40 million to sign Mateus Fernandes on the back of a relegation campaign at Southampton, after all.
Nuno Espirito Santo accepts that West Ham don’t even know Mateus Fernandes’ best role. As emphasised by the fact he played as a defensive midfielder at Arsenal and then as a left-sided number eight against Brentford.
Similar debates have raged around Andrey Santos at Chelsea of late. The downside to possessing such a wide skillset, as Fernandes and Santos both do, is that finding consistency of position and performance can be a tricky task.
Speaking to AS a few months back, Chelsea’s Brazil international admitted he felt equally comfortable with defensive or attacking responsibilities. Since returning to Stamford Bridge following an excellent loan spell at Strasbourg, though, head coach Enzo Maresca has tried out Santos in both roles without much success.
So had Chelsea decided to accept a staggering, and admittedly only rumoured bid from West Ham, Santos would probably be in Mateus Fernandes’ shoes right now. Under pressure to live up to a colossal transfer fee, but without a clear, defined role in the starting XI.
Andrey Santos yet to prove his worth after Chelsea rejected West Ham United bid
According to Brazilian reporter Vene Casagrande, West Ham had a £45m offer rejected by Chelsea in August. While such claims have not been backed up in many other sources, it is clear that – at that point of the window – the Hammers had money to spend and a midfielder was at the top of their wishlist.
Fernandes would end up arriving a few days later, for a similar fee.
Maresca was happy to see Chelsea retain Andrey Santos, feeling he could provide competition both for Enzo Fernandez as a box-crashing number eight and for Moises Caicedo as an all-action destroyer/dictator.
“I’m very happy with Andrey and very happy with Andrey staying here with us,” Maresca said.
“He can play in Enzo’s [Fernandez] position for sure, he can play in Moi’s [Caicedo] position.
“He played one game from the start in the Club World Cup against Palmeiras, when he was very good as a number six. So the good thing is that he can play in both positions very good.”
But, like with Mateus Fernandes, a bright start has given way to some nagging concerns. Fernandes has struggled to influence proceedings effectively at West Ham since his terrific debut performance away at Nottingham Forest. Nuno’s Nottingham Forest, ironically enough.
And while Andrey Santos has started three of Chelsea’s last four Premier League matches, he was hauled off in all of them. In the 69th, 54th and then 45th minute.
During that 2-1 defeat by Manchester United, Goal reported that Santos ‘worked hard but didn’t offer much quality’.
Against Brighton, another 2-1 defeat, Santos was blamed for a loose pass which led to Trevoh Chalobah’s game-changing red card. Goal handed him a rating of 4/10 at the City Ground, too.
Nottingham Forest display sums up Santos’ Chelsea career so far
While much of the post-match criticism came the way of an ineffective Alejandro Garnacho, Santos also made way at the interval as Chelsea followed up an insipid first-half with a dominant, three-goal second.
“I think in the first-half we struggled a little bit,” Maresca told reporters at full-time, explaining his 45th minute reshuffle on a day when Andrey Santos completed only six passes and wasted one of the few good early chances.
“On the ball we made some mistakes where we conceded some moments to them. Second-half [once the subs were on] we were much, much better.
“On the ball, we are not good enough.”
Scorer of 11 goals and six assists for Strasbourg last term, Andrey Santos has provided none and one back in West London.
When he is not bursting into the box to take or create chances, Santos’ role requires him to help Chelsea dominate the ball and progress through the thirds. In truth, he has performed below the required standards in both departments during the first few months of the campaign.
And while it would be highly premature to write off a 21-year-old playing regular Premier League football for the first time, West Ham realistically would have needed a £45 million acquisition to hit the ground running.
If Mateus Fernandes has lost a little bit of momentum after going from zero to sixty on debut, Andrey Santos is yet to even release the handbrake.
