Former Premier League defender William Gallas has warned Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca that Enzo Fernandez may not be suited to the English top flight.
The Blues spent a then club-record £106.8m on Fernandez in January 2023 before they spent around £115m on Moises Caicedo from Brighton later that year.
For the money spent, Fernandez has been disappointing with Maresca taking the decision to bench the Argentina international on a number of occasions this season.
Fernandez, who starred for Argentina in 2022 as they won the World Cup, has started just six of Chelsea‘s 11 Premier League matches this term and he now seemingly finds himself behind Caicedo and Romeo Lavia in the pecking order at Stamford Bridge.
And now former Chelsea defender Gallas reckons the Blues could soon have to cut their losses on Fernandez unless he vastly improves in the near future.
When asked if Fernandez is suited to the Premier League, Gallas told Prime Casino: “Enzo Fernandez is different. Even if he’s got good quality, we know the Premier League is very tough.
“The Premier League is not for everybody, we know that. We know it’s not for everybody. He has to lift his fitness. He has to do more; he has to run more. He has to be more consistent as well.
“That’s why the position he plays is so difficult. What do we ask him to do? To give some assists, to score goals, to play almost as a box-to-box.
“Can he do this? I don’t know if he can really play box-to-box. He needs to either start scoring goals or providing assists.”
Gallas added: “I think it will be a little bit hard for Enzo this season to reestablish himself in the midfield for Chelsea.
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“He’ll get opportunities from the bench, he got one against Manchester United, and even if he’s on for 15 or 20 minutes, he must show his quality.
“Against Man Utd, he had the opportunity to score the second goal for Chelsea that would have won them the game. So, there will be moments for him, and he needs to take them.
“He was a vice-captain and at the moment he’s on the bench. He knows he has to do more and other players know they will need to keep performing to keep their place in the team.”
Liverpool legend Graeme Souness is another pundit who doubts Chelsea midfielder Fernandez will ever reach the level required to compete in the Premier League.
Souness told the Three Up Front podcast: “From the current squad, I think there’ll be an enormous wastage of players and a lot of them will never live up to the levels that people think they will.
“The most obvious one for me is someone who isn’t even in the team at the moment, Enzo Fernandez, on whom they spent £105million. They’ve bought a load of players who won’t reach the level they would’ve hoped.”
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