Published: 19:36, 4 April 2026 | Updated: 19:37, 4 April 2026

Port Vale’s starting line-up cost them nothing, zilch, nada. It consisted of eight free transfers, two loanees, and one academy graduate.

Chelsea’s totalled £439.8million including add-ons, by comparison, and that was without their £106.8m man on the naughty step, Enzo Fernandez.

While it was fairly inevitable Chelsea would end Vale’s wonderful journey in this season’s FA Cup – sometimes, money talks in this game of 11 v 11 – there will still have been that nagging worry in the back of Liam Rosenior’s mind.

That ‘What if?’ They had lost their last four fixtures in succession. The fans are frustrated and on their backs. Their own players have been questioning the project and suggesting they may seek a move this summer.

Fernandez was unavailable after fluttering his eyelashes at Real Madrid over the international break with the vice captain handed a two-game ban by his own club. But the 25-year-old Argentinian was in attendance here, sitting behind the substitutes’ bench, sipping a tea, smiling, joking with Marc Cucurella and wearing a £420 baseball...