Enzo Fernandez looks to inflict Xabi Alonso heartbreak in £172m Chelsea past and present showdown

Real Madrid and Chelsea: two enormous football clubs – in their own rights – that hold quite a few shared interests this summer. Two names we have heard mentioned in the same sentence countless times.

Xabi Alonso, four months on from leaving the Santiago Bernabeu, put pen to paper on a four-year contract at Stamford Bridge. Alonso would have looked at a relatively inexperienced Chelsea squad and saw Marc Cucurella there, a full-fledged Spain international with an abundance of experience in football’s biggest games but the left back was gone before the new manager had even been given his Cobham key card.

Cucurella, fittingly, opted for a move to Real Madrid. Los Blancos announced the £51.7million capture of the 27-year-old Spaniard on a six-year contract. Chelsea sources stressed that Cucurella was keen to return to his homeland for personal reasons but a few months before, the defender expressed his frustration with what was going on at his former Stamford Bridge home.

The Real Madrid-Chelsea link is a historic one and dates way beyond this summer. Three significant recent dealings between the Spanish and English club has seen Thibaut Courtois, Eden Hazard and Antonio Rudiger all switch the changeable and unpredictable weather of London for the scorching-hot Madrid.

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And of course, in perhaps the biggest Real-Chelsea crossover of the year, the never-ending Enzo Fernandez show; which has threatened all summer-long to see another one of the Blues’ prized assets move to the Spanish capital.

It has turned into such an intriguing, noisy transfer saga – a term that is thrown around hastily at times but really does apply in this case – yet it is very much business as usual for Chelsea. Stamford Bridge insiders are working on the assumption that Fernandez will be wearing royal blue by the time the clock hits 11pm on September 1.

If any club is willing to pay £120m, then the Blues will facilitate a sale. Eyebrows were raised when Chelsea’s price tag was made public towards the end of May – just three days after the Premier League season concluded. Sources believe a superb World Cup showing from Fernandez has more than validated that eyebrow-raising valuation.

In a central midfield market where Elliot Anderson moved to Manchester City for £116m, Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali moved to Tottenham for £85m and £100m, respectively, Fernandez was always going to be expensive. Chelsea sources believe he is worth more than the aforementioned trio and his superb, gargantuan late equaliser against England in the World Cup semi-final earlier this week, as well as his stoppage-time winner to break Egypt hearts just over a week before, have proven just that.

Real Madrid did indeed express an interest in Fernandez at the start of the summer transfer window. However, the midfielder’s agent clearly triggered the European powerhouse when he attempted to push through his client’s dream move to two separate Spanish media outlets earlier this month. Los Blancos then took action – as only Spanish clubs seem to do – when they released a remarkable statement to say – on the record – that they have no intentions of pursuing a deal for the Chelsea star in the summer transfer window.

Sources said before the statement that there was indeed no direct contact between Madrid and Chelsea over Fernandez – later confirmed by the Spanish giants. At the time of writing, Stamford Bridge insiders insist that remains the case.

There were some curious reports from Spain earlier in the week linking another Madrid club, Atletico, with a move for Fernandez. Atleti, though, do not boast the same financial power as their fierce local rivals and surely would not be able to splash such cash unless they were able to produce a huge amount in player sales this summer. To be fair, Julian Alvarez has been linked with a big-money departure, although Atleti’s CEO Miguel Angel Gil said on Friday that the Argentina international will not be leaving the Wanda Metropolitano this summer.

Who else has £120m lying about? Ordinarily you would say Man City but that is not the case after Anderson’s record-breaking move to the Etihad Stadium. Paris Saint-Germain, sure, but the European champions have arguably the most stacked midfield in world football with the likes of Fabian Ruiz, Warren Zaire-Emery, Vitinha and Joao Neves to choose from. There were social media rumours linking Arsenal with Fernandez earlier this month, but it’s difficult to imagine even a parallel universe where that deal gets done.

It looks like Real or nothing for Fernandez. Cucurella, who has not even been to Madrid since signing for the 15-times Champions League winners, has made no secret of his desire to reunite with Fernandez.

Speaking earlier this month, the former Chelsea defender said to Radio Marca: “He’s a great player and he’s a friend of mine. He congratulated me on my signing (for Madrid). Let’s hope it gets done, I’d be very happy.

“We’ve been very happy at Chelsea, and both having the chance to sign for Madrid in the same summer. Let’s hope he’s lucky and he becomes a Madrid player.”

Chelsea don’t want Fernandez to be lucky. The Blues’ plan is – and always has been – for the Argentine to link up with the rest of the squad once his three-week break – the period of time players are allowed to relax once their participation in the World Cup is over – has concluded. That should start after the final in New Jersey ends, with Fernandez hoping to become a two-time champion of the world with this remarkable Argentina side.

Alonso confirmed in the week during his unveiling press conference that he wants to keep Fernandez around the place and based on his footballing ability alone, as he has shown for Argentina over the last month, why wouldn’t he? Sources close to Chelsea insist Alonso and the club are looking forward to welcoming the midfielder back once his break is over.

The irony of all this – Fernandez chasing a move away – is Chelsea are in the transfer market for players like the Argentine. Talented players, as is always the case, but also players with great mental fortitude, players who laugh in the face of adversity, players who are used to being pinned back onto the ropes but come out swinging and deliver a knockout punch.

Chelsea’s recruitment model, sources insist, has been tweaked this summer. While their only signing, bar the pre-agreed deals that preceded Alonso’s time, has been the 21-year-old defender Marco Palestra from Atalanta – someone of relative inexperience – the club’s targets have been more in line with the new model.

The Blues went for Granit Xhaka but Sunderland turned down an £8m offer and scared the west Londoners away with their mulish stance that the 33-year-old midfielder is not for sale at any price this summer. Xhaka then reaffirmed his commitment to the Black Cats and that was that.

Chelsea are also targeting 28-year-old left back Pep Chavarria from Rayo Vallecano following Cucurella’s move to Madrid. Negotiations with Rayo have proven to be tough with sources saying the Spanish club have moved the goalposts when it comes to Chavarria’s valuation.

You can’t help feeling that Fernandez would be unhappy if he is playing for Chelsea next season. He or his agent have not been subtle whatsoever in pushing for a transfer away. Blues fans will be hoping Fernandez can take a leaf out of his partner’s book.

Valentina Cervantes recently said in an interview: “No, I’m fine (in England). My son was born in England. He goes to school there and is very happy.”

If ever there was a manager to convince an unhappy player that Stamford Bridge is the ideal place to play his football, for the next season at the very least, then surely it is Alonso.

It is all quiet on the Fernandez front at the moment but you can’t help feel there are more twists and turns on the horizon in the coming weeks. Especially with the World Cup almost at its conclusion.

Speaking of, there is the small matter of the World Cup final this evening. Alonso, like the rest of the world, will be tuning in for the most-anticipated game in football but perhaps with a different perspective to most.

It may be a case of what could have been with Cucurella, who has shone for Spain in their journey to the final – particularly in the semi-final victory over France earlier this week. It may be a case of what can still be – and Alonso will be hoping it still can – with Fernandez, who has also flourished for Argentina in a much different way.

Fernandez started the late Argentine fightback in that dramatic victory over England in the week – and that was not the first game of the tournament where the midfielder’s heroics have sent the South Americans wild. Alonso will have an eager eye on Fernandez as he continues his planning for his debut season at Stamford Bridge.

Ironically, another match-winning performance from Fernandez will devastate Alonso, the 2010 World Cup winner with Spain.

If we hone in on Fernandez’s perspective for a minute, his 2025/26 season has been excellent. For club and country, the 25-year-old Argentine has scored 18 goals in 65 appearances – just shy of a strike in every three matches.

Having such a strong World Cup seems like a fitting way to cap off a ridiculously long season for Fernandez. Equally, he is proving to himself that he is too good to have a season without any form of European football. Though, if things continue in the way that seems likely, Fernandez will have little choice.