Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez has publicly questioned Chelsea’s decision to dismiss manager Enzo Maresca midseason, saying the move “hurt” the squad. In a new interview with TUDN he set out his bewilderment at the timing and the way the club handled the change.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t understand it either,” Fern\u00e1ndez confessed. “Sometimes there are things that we as players don\u2019t understand, how and in what way they try to manage things.<\/p>\n
“Obviously, it was a departure that hurt us a lot because we had an identity. He gave us an order, even though, as is the way of football, sometimes it\u2019s good and bad.<\/p>\n
“But he always had a very clear identity when it came to training and playing, and obviously his departure hurt us a lot, especially in the middle of the season, it cuts everything short.”<\/p>\n
Those comments add to a growing list of concerns around the club. On the pitch, Chelsea were humiliated in the Champions League at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain and they sit on the fringes of the qualification race for the competition. Off the pitch there have been reports of stuttering contract talks; Chelsea are working to improve Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s base salary under a wage structure that limits guaranteed earnings but rewards through performance-related bonuses, yet an agreement has not been reached on a deal that runs until 2032.<\/p>\n
None of this means a summer exit is guaranteed, and the fact Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s contract still has six years left to run will reassure Chelsea, but his frustrations threaten to make life incredibly difficult for the Blues this summer.<\/p>\n
Questions about the club\u2019s conduct at a business level have been common this season. Fans have already been protesting against the ownership, with most of the frustrations sparked by Maresca\u2019s departure, which came about after the Italian clashed with those above him over their approach to running the team. Supporters point to a clumsy, expensive transfer strategy and limited on-field progress.<\/p>\n
Fan group NotAProjectCFC have confirmed the next stage of their campaign. On April 18, before the match against Manchester United, the group intend to welcome a number of fans from Strasbourg, the other BlueCo-owned entity, to join forces against the ownership. “As a result of the continued erosion of values at both football clubs, we have decided to come together to take action with one clear, unified message: Blueco Out,” a statement read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez: Maresca sacking ‘hurt’ Chelsea; contract talks stall and fans vow April 18 protest..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[1505,1047,1089],"class_list":["post-9253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-accountability","tag-champions-league","tag-chelsea-struggles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253","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=9253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}