The clock is now ticking: Friday, 5pm. If Enzo Maresca truly wants to be reunited with Enzo Fernandez, that is the window Manchester City have been given to act. The price, as things stand, is a cool £120million.
It is fair to say the relationship between the two clubs has seen warmer days. Maresca walked away from Chelsea in January with the Manchester City job firmly in his sights, and the mood at Stamford Bridge was made clear months later. When Chelsea confirmed in June that compensation had been agreed for him to succeed Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium, their sharply worded statement did not even mention him by name.
So what exactly would Manchester City be buying if they decide to meet Chelsea’s £120m valuation for Fernandez? In simple terms, a player with personality — and plenty of it.
For Maresca, however, the appeal goes far beyond reputation. Fernandez is a footballer he knows, understands and clearly trusts. And if Maresca is to make his mark at City, he will want familiar figures capable of carrying out his demands. That faith was evident at Chelsea when, despite the racism controversy in 2024, Maresca still gave Fernandez the captain’s armband for the Premier League opener against Manchester City.
Maresca recently joked that Erling Haaland could never be his captain at City because he expects his skipper to sprint over after every goal for fresh tactical instructions — unless, of course, the captain was the one who scored. Haaland, he suggested, would simply find the net too often. At Chelsea, though, Fernandez was routinely the player Maresca summoned after goals, even when official club captain Reece James was on the pitch.
So what would Manchester City be getting for £120million if they decide to move for Enzo Fernandez? A player with edge, influence and no shortage of character
Fernandez is also no stranger to controversy, having been sent off in a World Cup final and even trying to get Chelsea team-mate Marc Cucurella dismissed while playing for Argentina in the same match
On the pitch, Fernandez was frequently the heartbeat of Chelsea’s midfield. Last season, even though Maresca departed midway through the campaign, Chelsea finished bottom of the Premier League for total distance covered by their squad. Fernandez, by contrast, ranked inside the division’s top 10 for individual distance covered — a telling measure of his work rate and importance.
Across Maresca’s 18 months at the club, no one played more league matches for Chelsea than Fernandez and only Mo Salah and Bruno Fernandes created more chances from open play across the division.
It looks like Maresca will have to take on the most daunting succession in world football without the most influential midfielder in City’s recent history, Rodri. Barcelona are deep in talks over bringing him back to his homeland.
Without the most reliable metronome in world football, Maresca is going to have to find another way to make City’s midfield tick.
The club have already paid £116million for Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest but he alone isn’t enough. City are also in talks to sign Morocco’s £85million World Cup star Ayyoub Bouaddi, who is a superb ball-winner and tidy on the ball. Fernandez certainly isn’t a like-for-like replacement.
Both are hugely authoritative and dominant but in different ways. Like Rodri, Fernandez is always at the heart of his team’s attacking play but more frequently at the business end of it.
In his full season under Maresca in 2024-25, he played a part in 200 attacking moves that ended in a Chelsea shot, either taking it himself, creating the chance, or being a part of the build-up. Nearly 60 per cent of them were him having the shot or setting it up. Among midfielders last season, too, he ranked first for expected goals.
By contrast, Rodri’s influence in the previous 2023-24 campaign, the one before he suffered his serious injury, was such that while he topped the list for involvements in his side’s attacking play, only 37 per cent of them were shots or chances he created.
Across Maresca’s 18 months at the club, no one played more league matches for Chelsea than Fernandez and only Mo Salah and Bruno Fernandes created more chances from open play
In Maresca’s only full season at Chelsea, Fernandez was involved in attacking play as much as any player bar Cole Palmer
Rodri was also heavily involved in City’s offensive work – but earlier on in the build-up
That season, Rodri averaged more than twice as many passes as Fernandez in 2024-25 and at a far higher completion rate with more than three times as many splitting opposition defensive lines.
The Chelsea man, however, was much more direct when he got the ball, playing a higher percentage of his passes forward than Rodri and more of them into the box. Unsurprisingly, Fernandez commits more fouls.
As one colleague who watches Fernandez often put it: ‘Rodri is like the dishwasher, keeps everything nice and clean. Enzo then smashes those dishes.’
One of the biggest differences, and one that Maresca will hope to make the most of, is Fernandez’s superb knack of crashing into the box. Rodri averages less than half a run into the penalty area per game. Fernandez usually makes at least five, and they frequently end up with him scoring.
Like another Chelsea star who made the move to City, he’s Lampard-esque in his ability to find the net following his late runs into the box.
See these examples below, beginning with a trip to Burnley in November, when he bursts forward late as team-mate Marc Guiu charges into the box.
With Burnley’s Josh Cullen (24) distracted by the ball, Fernandez is able to sprint past on his blind side, get to the cutback before him, and strike a first-time shot into the net
Against Brighton, Joao Pedro drops deep to collect the ball, drawing defenders. The ball is played out to Reece James on the right and Fernandez gets on to the end of a cross to head it in
Against Liverpool at the end of the 2024-25 season, Fernandez calls for the ball from Pedro Neto, who cuts it back, by which time Fernandez is there to collect it, take a touch and score
When Rodri was fit and at his peak, Guardiola prefered to use him as a single midfield pivot able to give others like Bernardo Silva the freedom to roam forward, safe in the knowledge that Rodri was there to clean up any mess. When he wasn’t fit, Guardiola would often switch to a two-man midfield.
Maresca has done the same in pre-season with Mateo Kovacic and Tijjani Reijnders there against Atletico Madrid in South Korea. The former sitting, the latter primed to burst forward. It will be interesting to see which of those slots, if any, Anderson takes against Arsenal in the Community Shield on Sunday.
In terms of style, Fernandez is much more similar to out-of-favour City midfielder Reijnders, who looks set to leave for Saudi side Al Qadsiah. If you compare their heat maps (below), they are both at their most content getting on the ball in the channels.
Rodri proved at the World Cup that he still has what it takes to be the best player on the biggest stage, but so much of the tournament was played at a slower pace due to the heat and altitude in the United States, Canada and Mexico. That allowed him to thrive.
The Premier League is a less forgiving landscape with monsters more effective these days than metronomes.
So, if he is to depart, Maresca seems to have found his way to replace him. It’ll only cost them more than £300million to do it.
