Enzo Fernandez expected to STAY at Chelsea for the entire season after club’s £120m transfer deadline passes with zero bids from Man City and other suitors

Chelsea expect Enzo Fernandez to stay for the entirety of this season after a deadline to trigger his exit for £120million passed without incident on Friday.

Manchester City and other interested parties did not lodge a bid for the Argentina midfielder ahead of the 5pm cut-off, with the Blues insistent that the chances of a departure are all but over.

Fernandez has wanted to link back up with former manager Enzo Maresca at the Etihad Stadium, with Chelsea having told the player’s representatives in May that they would facilitate a transfer if a £120m figure was met.

Those terms have now been removed and while City are unlikely to believe a potential deal is dead, they probably would not commit to the sort of outlay Chelsea initially demanded.

City are waiting for Rodri’s future to be finalised, with Barcelona still confident of securing the Spain captain. City want in excess of £60m for the World Cup winner.

The two clubs remain in negotiations over a fee and Rodri – who underwent back surgery after the World Cup – returned to the club’s training ground for pre-season testing on Friday.

The 30-year-old travelled back to Manchester on a Ryanair flight to Liverpool on Thursday evening and met Maresca hours later.

Maresca admitted that City still have a significant amount of work to do in the transfer window, with Tijjani Reijnders on his way to Al Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia for £52m. Tottenham are looking to wrap up a deal for Savinho, with City facing Arsenal in the Community Shield on Sunday.

Maresca has suggested that there could be further outgoings in the coming weeks.

‘We’ll see what happens with some more, there is a change in this moment,’ the Italian said. ‘We are in a moment where players that were here many years have already left or [others who] probably can leave.

‘And that means there is a change. We’re going to try to do our best. At the moment the transfer window closes, we need to be good enough to find as soon as possible solutions for the team.’

The 46-year-old refused to discuss players from other clubs, adding that ‘I don’t think it’s good when people from other clubs speak about our players’ after a summer of discussion around Rodri in Spain.

Reijnders had decided to pursue other opportunities after a lack of starts last season and Maresca believes there are others in the same boat.

‘They all work every day, they all do sessions every day and at the end of the week they all want to play a game,’ he said.

‘When they don’t play, they struggle to understand or they struggle to see the reason why and I can understand that after one season some of them would like to play a little bit more.

‘It’s a bit difficult to convince players when they are already convinced. You need to change their thoughts, that is not always easy.

‘Tijjani’s situation is like James Trafford’s situation and some more players but I think when the club, the player, the manager, they all think the same way, that probably the best decision for a player is to go, you have to go.’