Fermin Lopez has damaged his silence on Chelsea’s switch curiosity in him this summer time.
The Blues launched a late bid to signal the Spain worldwide throughout the ultimate days of the switch window.
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Nevertheless, the 22-year-old remained with Barcelona past Monday’s deadline as Chelsea did not agree a deal.
The west London membership launched a £34.6million bid from the west London membership over the weekend.
Lopez has now revealed his ‘precedence’ had all the time been to stick with Barca regardless of Chelsea’s curiosity.
The midfielder joined the membership’s famed La Masia academy as a 12-year-old earlier than progressing into the first-team.
Explaining his resolution to reject the Blues, he instructed Mundo Deportivo: “Effectively, ultimately, my precedence has all the time been to be at Barça. I arrived once I was 12; it was my dream to be right here, to have the ability to attain the primary crew.
“It is all the time a praise when there’s curiosity from different golf equipment, however the fact is, I all the time had the thought of staying at Barca and with the ability to succeed right here.
“There’s been a whole lot of hypothesis about all this, however I insist: my precedence has all the time been to be at Barca, and I by no means doubted being right here.
“I’ve all the time felt I needed to be right here, to attempt to succeed, and to assist the membership.”
Lopez signed a brand new five-year cope with Barca in October 2024 earlier than occurring to win a league and Copa del Rey double final season.
He additionally revealed that a number of of his teammates had satisfied him to remain on the membership after asking him to not depart.
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The playmaker added: “I’ve had a couple of conversations with a few of them.
“However the entire crew has been very supportive this week, and everybody needed me to remain, too. The help from the locker room is appreciated.”
When requested who he had spoken to, he replied: “Fairly a couple of, however I can let you know… Marc-Andre ter Stegen, for instance.
“With him, with Ronald [Araujo], with Pedri, with fairly a couple of gamers, really. Raphinha too.”
Lopez has made 90 first-team appearances for Barca, scoring 19 objectives and offering 11 assists.
His LaLiga and Copa del Rey wins final season adopted Euro 2024 and Olympic glory with Spain the earlier summer time.
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Chelsea’s summer time switch enterprise
Regardless of lacking out on the signing of Lopez, Enzo Maresca introduced in ten new gamers throughout the summer time switch window.
In whole, the Italian spent £317.2m bolstering his squad for his or her Premier League and Champions League campaigns.
Amongst them was the £60m arrival of Joao Pedro from Brighton in addition to Alejandro Garnacho’s long-awaited arrival.
Elsewhere, Jamie Gittens, Jorrel Hato and Liam Delap accomplished strikes to Stamford Bridge.
Brazilian winger Estevao additionally made the swap from Palmeiras after turning 18 having agreed his transfer a yr earlier.
In the meantime, Facundo Buonanotte was a late arrival from Brighton on a season-long mortgage.
