Chelsea expect Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez to resume a leading role with the armband while the club\u2019s handling of his recent conduct remains under scrutiny. Fern\u00e1ndez was sanctioned by the club after he appeared to openly court a move to Real Madrid, yet manager Rosenior has sought to limit damage to his relationship with the midfielder. Rosenior insisted that “things aren\u2019t what people maybe think they are” and is preparing to welcome his star back for the side\u2019s next fixture against Manchester United.<\/p>\n
With club captain Reece James still sidelined by injury, Fern\u00e1ndez is expected to wear the armband on his return, The Guardian report. The 25-year-old “remains part of the leadership group” and is described as one of the most vocal and forthright personalities in the squad.<\/p>\n
The decision to reinstate Fern\u00e1ndez is not universally accepted. The Athletic quote one source who felt compelled to stress that Fern\u00e1ndez is merely “one of several co-captains” as opposed to the “formal vice-captain.” Both reports agree that Cole Palmer will not captain Chelsea against Manchester City on Sunday. Palmer wore the armband in last weekend\u2019s 7\u20130 win over Port Vale for the first time in his career and said, “It was a proud moment being captain,” Palmer noted. “I enjoyed it and it was a good afternoon.”<\/p>\n
Multiple outlets expect Mois\u00e9s Caicedo to take the armband against City. The 24-year-old has already twice captained Chelsea this season in cup competitions against lower league opposition and is considered higher in the pecking order than Palmer. Whether he keeps the captaincy at Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s expense against Manchester United will also depend on Caicedo not receiving a 10th yellow card against City.<\/p>\n
Appearance ranks at Chelsea underline where each player sits in experience: Reece James 226, Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez 161, Mois\u00e9s Caicedo 139 and Cole Palmer 123. Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s possession of the armband for the remainder of the campaign is one issue. His long-term status at the club is more complex. Marc Cucurella was left unsanctioned after he was convinced by discussions with the hierarchy, while Fern\u00e1ndez is thought to “remain keen” on a move to Real Madrid, BBC Sport report. That same report lists his asking price at $133.2 million (\u00a3100 million) and describes Madrid\u2019s stance as unclear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Enzo Fernandez expected to wear Chelsea armband again amid sanctions and Real Madrid interest noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[983,1140,1006],"class_list":["post-11160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-agents","tag-caicedo","tag-captaincy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}