Enzo Fernandez Joins Manchester City: A New Chapter Begins
Enzo Fernandez walks into a Manchester City dressing room that has been waiting for him.
Manager Enzo Maresca revealed that in the frantic final days of the transfer window, several City players were repeatedly asking the same question: Is Enzo coming? They wanted the answer to be yes. Now it is.
The 25-year-old Argentina international completed a joint-British record £125m move from Chelsea to City on deadline day, reuniting with Maresca after their spell together at Stamford Bridge. He could make his debut as soon as Saturday, when newly promoted Coventry City visit Etihad Stadium in the Premier League.
“I know Enzo quite well and I know what he can bring to the team,” Maresca said. “He is a winner – a winner’s mentality and knows how to win [after] the World Cup, Club World Cup.”
At Chelsea, Maresca had handed Fernandez the captain’s armband. At City, the hierarchy is already set. Ruben Dias has been confirmed as the new club captain, replacing Bernardo Silva, who left in the summer, with Erling Haaland, Marc Guehi and Gianluigi Donnarumma forming the rest of the leadership group.
The arrival of another serial competitor has clearly gone down well in the squad.
“I just said he is a winner and when you belong to a squad and another winning player arrives, they are always happy,” Maresca explained. “I can promise you that in the last four or five days four or five players from the squad were asking if he is coming or not because they want him to be with us.
“It’s very important that he is with us and we are 100% happy with that.”
Fernandez has not hidden how much he wanted this move. In an in-house interview released on Thursday, he said he had always “dreamed of being at a club as big as City”, a line that landed awkwardly with some at his former club.
His mind, though, had been made up for some time. His desire to leave Stamford Bridge had been clear since the turn of the year, and even talks with Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso over the summer failed to shift his stance.
“In football many things happen,” Alonso said. “With Enzo we have had conversations and always with respect. What he has done for the club has been great, but now it’s time to move forward.
“We have players with quality in every position and now we are ready to go.”
City, meanwhile, have moved aggressively. They spent a transfer window record £458m on new signings, with £327m poured into a rebuilt midfield built around Fernandez, Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi. Wingers Iliman Ndiaye and Allan also arrived, along with back-up goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli, though the club recouped more than £300m in player sales.
Maresca made a point of acknowledging the scale of backing behind the overhaul.
“I am very happy for the effort from the ownership, [chairman] Khaldoon [Al Mubarak] and [director of football] Hugo [Viana]. Very happy,” he said. “In the last days, Iliman and Enzo arrived, and now the squad is complete – it’s finished. Now it is time to work.”
The wait inside the dressing room is over. Now Fernandez has to show why so many of his new teammates were so desperate for him to walk through the door.
