Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has backed Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez publicly, but his remarks did little to clear up the midfielder\u2019s situation as the new Premier League season approaches.<\/p>\n
The club had set City a Friday, Aug. 14 deadline to table a $162 million (\u00a3120 million) bid, with Chelsea saying Fern\u00e1ndez would be taken off the market if no offer arrived. That figure never came, yet the uncertainty around the Argentine has not gone away.<\/p>\n
When asked directly if Fern\u00e1ndez would still be a Chelsea player once the window closes, Alonso said: \u201cEnzo is a Chelsea player. He\u2019s a top player. He\u2019s training well, he\u2019s preparing for Monday [against Fulham] and that\u2019s my concern at the moment and what I have in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed on whether Fern\u00e1ndez had told the club he wanted to stay at Stamford Bridge, Alonso again kept his focus narrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s training really well,\u201d Alonso digressed. \u201cI see him with a good attitude. That\u2019s what we want. Everyone is trying their best to prepare for the kickoff of the Premier League.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alonso was also asked whether Fern\u00e1ndez would keep the vice-captaincy, but he pointed instead to the leadership structure already in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cReece [James] is the first captain and we have other leaders, other personalities that share the same role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chelsea remain open to selling Fern\u00e1ndez despite the deadline passing, although the club had said they did not want to unsettle Alonso\u2019s squad so close to the start of the season. The feeling is that a $162 million offer may no longer be enough.<\/p>\n
For now, City appear to be the only realistic suitor. They have raised significant funds through recent sales, including $88 million from Rodri\u2019s move to Barcelona, while Savinho is expected to join Tottenham Hotspur in a deal worth up to $116 million. Omar Marmoush is also expected to follow.<\/p>\n
If Fern\u00e1ndez stays, he may still need to win over supporters who remain split over his recent conduct. He was booed on his preseason debut against Real Sociedad last week, before the noise was overtaken by support from other sections of the crowd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alonso backed Fern\u00e1ndez but avoided clarity on his future as Chelsea\u2019s transfer stance remains uncertain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[1836,182],"class_list":["post-18660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18660","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=18660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}