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Chelsea have dropped their vice-captain Enzo Fernández for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Port Vale and the following league game after he appeared to flirt with Real Madrid over a potential move during the international break.
The midfielder, who has been linked with Real, offered his thoughts on the Spanish capital while on international duty with Argentina. He said: “I’d like to live in Madrid. It’s a beautiful city, reminds me of Buenos Aires.”
The Chelsea head coach, Liam Rosenior, said the comments had “crossed a line” and he had informed the 25-year-old of the ban on Friday morning.
Rosenior said: “I spoke with Enzo about an hour ago. As a football club, with me as part of the decision, he won’t be available for tomorrow’s game or Manchester City next Sunday.
“It’s disappointing for Enzo to speak that way. I have got no bad words to say about him but a line was crossed in terms of our culture and what we want to build.”
Fernández has been regularly linked with a summer move to Real and he cast doubt over his future at Stamford Bridge, in the wake of their crushing Champions League last-16 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain, telling ESPN Argentina: “I don’t know,” when asked if he would still be at the club next season. The Blues have lost four consecutive games, exiting Europe after the 8-2 aggregate humiliation by PSG, and have slumped to sixth in the Premier League.
The Telegraph this week reported that several Chelsea players were unimpressed by Fernández berating his teammates on the pitch. “The door is not closed on Enzo, that’s very important. It’s a sanction,” Rosenior said. “You have to protect this club and culture,” he said.
Fernández joined Chelsea for a then British record £107m in 2023 and was appointed vice-captain the following year. “Enzo, firstly, as a character, a person and a player, I have the utmost respect,” said Rosenior. “He’s frustrated because he wants us to be successful.
“It’s not ideal. A lot of this stems from a difficult 10 days in terms of results we have had – probably the most difficult for me as a player or manager. I’ll go back to the first game against Paris Saint-Germain. It all fell apart in 15 minutes and there was a huge emotional dump that fell through into the next three games.” Chelsea were drawing 2-2 away in the 74th minute but ended up losing 5-2.
Rosenior continued: “The players were motivated that we could do something really special in the Champions League. The comments from Enzo and Marc Cucurella’s interview both stem from that. It actually stems from a good place where they want the club to succeed. But in those moments, we need more emotional stability as a group of players.”
In what was a disruptive international break for Chelsea, Cucurella said it would be “hard to turn down” an offer to return to his former club Barcelona. However, Rosenior said: “That’s a separate case. Marc is available and will be involved tomorrow. Marc is fully committed. He wants to be here. He has made that very, very clear to me and he believes in where we are going.”
On the feeling of a rift within the Chelsea dressing room, Rosenior hit back. “There are certain conversations that need to stay behind closed doors,” he said. “What there isn’t, and I want to make this very clear, there is no rift in the dressing room. There is not a group of players not speaking to another group of players. We are together – me including. Every club go through difficult moments. We’ve had a very difficult 10 days. Now is the time to come together and perform.”
