Hands off Real Madrid! Chelsea not interested in selling Enzo Fernández

Enzo Fernandez will be at Chelsea next season, according to boss Enzo Maresca, after speculation linking the Argentina international with Real Madrid.

Madrid will look to rebuild their midfield this summer as they attempt to regain parity with Barcelona, who have swept everything before them domestically.

Having failed to adequately replace Toni Kroos when he retired 12 months ago, Madrid are determined not to make the same mistake following Luka Modric’s announcement yesterday that he will leave the club after the Club World Cup.

Fernandez is rumoured to be on the shortlist of incoming Madrid boss Xabi Alonso but Maresca is not interested in selling a player Chelsea invested £107million in in January 2023.

Asked if he would be at Stamford Bridge next season, Maresca said: “Yes.

“Enzo is very important for us. He is one of our captains, he is one of the leaders. This season has been very good and he can be even better next season, starting from the first day. [I’ve] nothing to say about speculation, his focus is on us and that is the most important thing.”

The final day. pic.twitter.com/eWnmraOg6t

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) May 22, 2025

Champions League qualification and European trophy up for grabs this week

Sunday’s game at Nottingham Forest kicks off an important week for Chelsea.

They head to the City Ground looking to secure a top-five finish and a place in next season’s Champions League before flying to Poland to take on Real Betis in the Conference League final in Wroclaw on Wednesday night.

Maresca insists his focus is solely on the weekend game and not the European showpiece, although he admitted he would need to make full use of his squad across the two games.

“The next one is the most important one and then after that we can focus on Wednesday’s game,” he added. “I said this the other day, we don’t have enough time to recover the energy so, for sure, we need to rotate and change things. We need to make some changes.”

Improvement on the road required

A draw at seventh-placed Forest may be enough for Chelsea to qualify for the Champions League, but that would leave them depending on results elsewhere.

A win would make sure but Chelsea’s record on the road this season has not been great with just seven wins from 18 Premier League games.

Maresca said: ”It is something for sure, during the short break, we have to analyse. I also said many times I like to analyse game by game. Sometimes we played away and we didn’t deserve to lose or even draw. But for sure if we struggle away, there is a reason why, and we are going to use the break to understand the reason why.

“On the other side, at home, we won almost all the games. So, there is also a good part as well.”

Nicolas Jackson is suspended but Chelsea will have Christopher Nkunku and Marc Guiu available.