Swansea look ready to offer Napoli £8 million for Argentina defender, Federico Fernández as the Premier League side look to replace Chico Flores who is following former manager, Michael Laudrup to Qatari club Lekhwiya.

The 25-year-old centre back is reportedly unsettled in Naples after finding first team opportunities hard to comeby. Under Rafael Benítez, Fernández has been in and out of the team and so a move might see the Argentina international establish himself as first choice elsewhere.

Fernández played in Argentina’s opening three matches in Brazil before losing his place to Manchester City defender, Martin Demechelis. Prior to this, Fernández had been Alejandro Sabella’s preferred option to partner Ezequiel Garay. However, in Brazil, Fernández looked well off the pace and was undoubtedly the weak-link in Argentina’s side.

Perhaps it would be unfair to judge Fernández on these matches as he certainly did not perform like a £8 million defender.

While at Estudiantes, Fernández won the Torneo Apertura and the Copa Libertadores catching the eye of Napoli who paid €3million to bring him to Italy.

The move to Serie A has not really worked out but Fernández would offer a like-for-like replacement for a defender like Chico Flores. Strong in the air and fairly uncompromising, Fernández is a rather old-fashioned type of centre half.

On his day, Fernández can be a very able defender but the speed of the Premier League might be an issue and at £8 million Swansea can probably ill afford for the transfer not to work.