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Enzo Fernandez has been dropped for Chelsea’s next two games after repeated public comments casting doubt over his future on the club.
Fernandez will miss the FA Cup quarter-final tie on Saturday against Port Vale and next weekend’s Premier League clash with Manchester City.
‘I spoke with Enzo an hour ago. We’ve made a call – he won’t be available for tomorrow’s game and he won’t be available for Manchester City,’ Liam Rosenior confirmed in his press conference on Friday.
‘It’s disappointing for Enzo to talk that way. I even have got no bad words to say about him but a line was crossed but a line was crossed when it comes to our culture and what we would like to construct.
‘It’s not ideal. Plenty of it stemmed from a extremely difficult ten days, probably probably the most difficult ten days of my profession.’
Fernandez raised eyebrows after Chelsea’s disappointing defeat to Paris Saint-Germain when he refused to rule out the opportunity of leaving Stamford Bridge in the summertime in an interview with ESPN Argentina.
In a separate interview that very same evening, Fernandez went on to query the club’s decision to part ways with Enzo Maresca.
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Fernandez later confirmed there had been ‘no talks’ with Real Madrid amid links with the Spanish club, however the midfielder stoked the flames over again over the international break when he said that Madrid can be his ideal place to live if he were to go away London.
Rosenior added: ‘Enzo, firstly, as a personality, an individual and a player, I even have the utmost respect for what he has achieved and what he’s as a player. He’s frustrated because he wants us to achieve success.
‘By way of the choice, it’s not all about me, or the sporting directors, the ownership, the players, we’re aligned in every decision that we make. It was a joint decision.
‘The door just isn’t closed on Enzo. It’s a sanction. You might have to guard the culture, and when it comes to that, a line was crossed within the international break.’
Asked about Fernandez’s future on the club, Rosenior added: ‘By way of speaking for him, what he wants and his future, it’s not for me to talk about. I need to give attention to an enormous tomorrow where we will make an FA Cup semi-final.’
Marc Cucurella is one other who was outspoken over the international break, with the left-back also questioning the choice to sack Maresca and criticising the club’s youth-centric transfer approach.
The Spaniard also said a return to Barcelona can be ‘hard to show down’, but won’t be punished like Fernandez.
‘That’s a separate case. Marc is on the market and will likely be involved tomorrow,’ Rosenior confirmed.
‘Everybody knows Marc’s character. He’s passionate and he desires to do well. It was a protracted interview. He spoke his mind. After I was with him yesterday, I reminded him he could be honest with me. That takes time. To construct those relationships, it takes time.
‘Marc is fully committed. He desires to be here. He has made that very, very clear to me and he believes in where we’re going.’
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