Enzo Fernandez is the face of the ugly game and Enzo Maresca should run a mile from him. Replacing Pep Guardiola at Man City is already the hardest job in football without once again indulging Argentine’s graceless, brainless behaviour
It is not a surprise that Manchester City appear to be pursuing Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez, a player who has come to symbolise much that is ugly about the beautiful game.
City’s new manager, Enzo Maresca, has got form for indulging and rewarding the graceless and base antics of the Argentina midfielder that goes back to his time in charge at Stamford Bridge.
Two years ago, Maresca was forced to defend his decision to select Fernandez as Chelsea captain in their opening game of the 2024-25 season, against City, just a month after Fernandez posted a video of him and other Argentina players mocking the racial heritage of the France team.
Chelsea team-mate Wesley Fofana branded the video, uploaded by Fernandez after Argentina’s victory over Colombia in that summer’s Copa America final, as ‘uninhibited racism’. Fernandez apologised. And in the absence of Reece James, Maresca made him skipper.
What Fernandez did was brainless as well as offensive. This is a player, don’t forget, who was suspended by his own club at the end of last season after he flirted publicly with Real Madrid. This is a player who helped to get Liam Rosenior the sack at Chelsea when his performances dipped noticeably.
This is a man who is up there with the worst in the league in his attempts to pressure referees with his antics. This is a player who was sent off in the World Cup final and whose thuggish, unpunished behaviour in the semi-final against England prompted widespread disgust.
It is not a surprise that Manchester City appear to be pursuing Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez, who in the last couple of years has come to symbolise much that is ugly about the beautiful game
City’s new manager Enzo Maresca has got form for indulging the graceless and base antics of the Argentina midfielder that goes back to his time in charge at Stamford Bridge
In those circumstances, and given Chelsea set an asking price of £120million, it was predictable that Madrid did not want to go anywhere near him. It was less predictable that they would take the unusual step of stating publicly they were not interested in buying him.
‘The club wishes to state,’ read the Madrid communique at the beginning of July, ‘that it has not made any efforts, either directly or indirectly, aimed at signing the aforementioned player and, furthermore, has no intention of pursuing such an operation.’
But now, a couple of months into the job, Maresca is already risking the reputation City built in their Pep Guardiola years, for being a side that was widely admired for the quality, style and attitude with which it went about dominating the Premier League.
Chelsea have set a deadline of 5pm on Friday for City to make a bid for Fernandez and meet their asking price but it is possible the story will bleed further towards the transfer deadline of September 1.
City under Guardiola were the team of gifted stars like Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva. They were the team of Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland. They were a team that put a smile on the face of any neutral that watched them.
The purchase of Fernandez, if it happens, will change that. Fernandez is a fine player but his quality comes at a high cost in terms of the image of the team he plays for. The wisest managers buy character as well as quality.
The truth is that if City buy Fernandez, it will represent not just a downgrade on Rodri but a reversal of much that the club stood for under Guardiola. It will represent an embrace of the ugly side of the game. It will be a transfer that stands for cynicism. It will be a move that says City are swapping beauty for the game’s dark arts.
The truth is also that Chelsea overpaid for Fernandez when they agreed to give Benfica £106.8million for him in the aftermath of the 2022 World Cup. He has not been as big a failure as some of the BlueCo signings but he has mixed some outstanding performances with periods of near anonymity.
The truth is that if City buy Fernandez (right), it will represent not just a downgrade on Rodri (left) but a reversal of much that the club stood for under Pep Guardiola
It will represent an embrace of the ugly side of the game. It will be a transfer that stands for cynicism. It will be a move that says City are swapping beauty for the game’s dark arts
He is supposed to be one of the leaders of the team but there were spells last season when he looked nothing like a leader. Leaders don’t flirt with other teams. Leaders don’t get suspended by their own club. Leaders don’t allow mediocrity to flourish all around them.
Chelsea finished tenth in the Premier League last season, 33 points adrift of champions Arsenal and Fernandez was part of that surrender. If Chelsea do sell him to City and somehow manage to recoup the money they paid for him, it should be cause for a huge celebration on the King’s Road.
There are early signs, in fact, that Chelsea, under their own new manager Xabi Alonso, are starting to pursue a more coherent transfer policy and achieve a better balance in their playing staff. If Fernandez leaves, it will be another step in the right direction.
For City, it would be the opposite. Maresca already has the most difficult job in English football in attempting to replace Guardiola. If he signs Fernandez, that job will get a whole lot harder.
