{"id":510817,"date":"2026-04-03T13:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/510817\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:24:08","slug":"chelsea-axe-enzo-fernandez-for-two-games-after-crossing-a-line-with-madrid-comments-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/510817\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea axe Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez for two games after \u2018crossing a line\u2019 with Madrid comments | Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez has been dropped for Chelsea\u2019s next two games, with Liam Rosenior<\/a> suggesting the club\u2019s vice-captain had \u201ccrossed a line\u201d in recent comments over his future.<\/p>\n

Following what he described as the worst 10 days of his career, Rosenior insisted he had to punish Fern\u00e1ndez, who first questioned whether he would remain at Stamford Bridge beyond this season and then suggested he would like to live in Madrid \u2013 a comment widely viewed as courting a move to Real Madrid, a club with which he has frequently been linked.<\/p>\n

While he will still train with Chelsea\u2019s first-team squad, Fern\u00e1ndez will not be available for Saturday\u2019s FA Cup quarter-final against Port Vale nor next Sunday\u2019s Premier League match against Manchester City.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Enzo, it\u2019s disappointing to speak in that way,\u201d said Rosenior. \u201cWhat I will say about Enzo is in terms of him as a character, as a person, I\u2019ve got no bad words to say about him. But I think a line was crossed in terms of our culture and what we want to build. So we had to make a sanction and that was a decision we\u2019ve made. The door is not closed on Enzo. That\u2019s very important. It\u2019s a sanction. You have to protect that culture. I think in terms of that, the line was crossed in the international break.\u201d<\/p>\n

A dejected Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez after Bradley Barcola put Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 up in the second leg of Chelsea\u2019s Champions League last-16 tie. Photograph: Shaun Brooks\/CameraSport\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez joined Chelsea from Benfica for what was then a British record fee of \u00a3107m in January 2023. Asked whether he believed the Argentine continues to see his future at the club, Rosenior said: \u201cI can\u2019t speak for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez was not alone in courting controversy during the international break. Marc Cucurella used an interview to criticise the decision to sack Rosenior\u2019s predecessor Enzo Maresca and suggested he would be open to a return to his former club Barcelona. Rosenior confirmed he had spoken to the Spaniard and urged him to air any grievances direct. \u201cMarc is fully committed,\u201d he said. \u201cHe wants to be here. He\u2019s made that very, very clear to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chelsea lost four successive matches prior to the international break, exiting the Champions League in a bruising 8-2 aggregate defeat to Paris Saint-Germain during a period Rosenior described as \u201cthe most difficult 10 days of my career as a player or a coach\u201d.<\/p>\n

Marc Cucurella suggested he would be open to a return to Spain. Photograph: Chelsea Football Club\/Chelsea FC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Despite Fern\u00e1ndez and Cucurella\u2019s comments, the head coach insisted there remains a sense of unity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll make this very, very clear \u2013 there is not a rift in the dressing room,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a group of players who are not speaking to another group of players. We are together. We go through, and every club goes through, difficult moments in the season. We had a very, very difficult 10 days as a football club in terms of the results, in terms of being out of the Champions League.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow\u2019s the time for us to come together, back from the international break, and make sure we commit and perform in the manner that we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosenior also hinted further players will follow the club captain Reece James in soon committing themselves to Chelsea by signing new contracts: \u201cYou\u2019ll see what happens in the next couple of weeks in terms of the commitment of the players to this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

James, Trevoh Chalobah and Levi Colwill remain out for Port Vale\u2019s visit, but Est\u00eav\u00e3o and Jamie Gittens are available after injuries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez has been dropped for Chelsea\u2019s next two games, with Liam Rosenior suggesting the club\u2019s vice-captain had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-510817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}