Xabi Alonso already makes Enzo Fernandez Chelsea transfer decision
Xabi Alonso has not even been officially announced as the next Chelsea manager yet, but there is already a ton of excitement amongst the supporters. The Spaniard is clearly the one that the fans wanted. And for the first time in the BlueCo era, the club have made the popular choice when it comes to the managerial appointment.
Of course, the work starts from here. Alonso will need to get Chelsea back to competing for the biggest prizes. That is the expectation that has been set. And to do that, he will need to strengthen this squad.
There are some players whose futures are up in the air. One of them is Enzo Fernandez. While the talk has faded away since his suspension, one cannot forget what led to it. The Argentine never ruled out a possible exit in the summer. Could that crop back up?
Well, according to Simon Phillips, Alonso is speaking to Chelsea players. He wants to keep Marc Cucurella and Fernandez.
Alonso wants Fernandez to stay
So, it appears that Alonso wants to keep Cucurella and Fernandez. Both have been linked with moves to Spain recently.
Cucurella is said to be drawing interest from his former club FC Barcelona, whose youth ranks he came through. On the other hand, Fernandez has been linked to Real Madrid going back to his Benfica days.
It remains to be seen if Alonso’s arrival ends up convincing them to stay. Let’s not overlook the magnitude of this appointment in that respect. The Spaniard was a top player in his day and is a proven coach as well, having managed at Real Madrid and won an Invincible Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen. Players will want to be coached by him. Are Cucurella and Fernandez among them? We shall find out.
Chelsea can’t afford to lose any more starters
The last thing Chelsea need right now is key players leaving. Both Fernandez and Cucurella are starters for the Blues at the moment with replacements of equal quality not in place.
The talk right now is that Chelsea will look to add multiple starters to their squad. That being said, they might need to let quite a few go in order to fund those moves.
Ideally, those would be fringe players who are not expected to play much, even after the arrival of Alonso. Perhaps the club could look towards the free agent market as well. Without Champions League football, they will need to make the finances work somehow. Let’s see how successful they prove to be.
Sourav Mahanty has covered teams like Chelsea, Celtic, Real Madrid, Manchester United, PSG and more over a career that has now lasted a decade.
His work has been featured on Sports Illustrated, Athlon Sports, SB Nation, FanSided, The Sportster and aggregated through Bleacher Report and NewsNow.
Outside of football, he is also interested in basketball, cricket and professional wrestling.
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