Xabi Alonso Confirms Enzo Fernandez Is Staying at Chelsea

Xabi Alonso insists Enzo Fernandez is going nowhere – at least for now.

The Chelsea head coach says the Argentina midfielder has returned to Cobham with a “really good attitude” despite a summer dominated by talk of a blockbuster move and a £120m exit clause agreed with his camp.

Back in late May, Chelsea reached an understanding with Fernandez’s agent Javier Pastore that the 25-year-old could leave if a club met that £120m figure before a strict deadline of 14 August. The clock ticked, the date came and went. No formal bid landed.

Once the deadline expired last Friday, Chelsea’s stance hardened. The message to Fernandez’s representatives was blunt: he is not for sale in this window.

That has not stopped noise elsewhere. Manchester City, now led by Enzo Maresca – the man who coached Fernandez during his previous spell at Stamford Bridge – remain keen and believe Chelsea are still open to doing business. The champions sense an opportunity.

Alonso is presenting a very different picture.

Speaking ahead of Chelsea’s Premier League opener away at Fulham on Monday, he was asked directly whether Fernandez would still be a Chelsea player when the transfer window shuts on 1 September.

“Enzo is a Chelsea player. We are happy with him and he's getting ready for Monday,” Alonso said.

The Spaniard stressed that Fernandez has “integrated really well” since rejoining the squad after the World Cup and highlighted the standards the midfielder is setting behind the scenes, describing him as “training really well”.

“I see him with a really good attitude and that's what we want,” Alonso added.

So the numbers, the rumours and the pull of Manchester City all swirl around him. But as the season kicks off at Craven Cottage, Chelsea’s £120m man is being judged on something far simpler: how he trains, how he plays, and whether he can anchor Alonso’s new era from the heart of midfield.