Official: Chelsea sign Enzo Fernandez on an Eight and a Half Year Contract

[martin1905]

31 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

I'm sure he'll do just that when he returns from holiday, something he is entitled to have irrespective of everything that's happened.

There's also a high probability there's been private conversations directly between Enzo and the others addressing matters. 

Once he gets back dialogue to mend bridges will no doubt continue.

I'm all for someone deserving a holiday, I'm a proper union man,  as militant as they come and make sure I get every minute I'm entitled to and won't do a single second of work I don't have to, but sometimes you have to go above and beyond.

Just put yourself in any of his current team mates shoes though , especially the French ones.

He should have got on the first available plane back here and seen all the players he had offended to personally apologise. Instead he's at a football ground, being paraded around like a hero, smiling and waving and lone behold the same song is sung in the stadium, cleary a song the fans have taken to, I mean how stupid can he be? It was obvious they would sing it and he should have been nowhere near. He should have cut short his holiday and tried to sort this mess out. 

If he was genuinely sorry, genuinely wanted to make amends, genuinely cared about our club, us fans or his team mates the last place he would be seen publicly is in a stadium full of fans signing the racist chant that started all of this.

To make it even worse, and we will never know for sure but it must have crossed his mind, or at least one of his advisers. Someone must have mentioned the fact that they would probably sing that song. 

[xceleryx]

24 minutes ago, martin1905 said:

I'm all for someone deserving a holiday, I'm a proper union man,  as militant as they come and make sure I get every minute I'm entitled to and won't do a single second of work I don't have to, but sometimes you have to go above and beyond.

Just put yourself in any of his current team mates shoes though , especially the French ones.

He should have got on the first available plane back here and seen all the players he had offended to personally apologise. Instead he's at a football ground, being paraded around like a hero, smiling and waving and lone behold the same song is sung in the stadium, cleary a song the fans have taken to, I mean how stupid can he be? It was obvious they would sing it and he should have been nowhere near. He should have cut short his holiday and tried to sort this mess out. 

If he was genuinely sorry, genuinely wanted to make amends, genuinely cared about our club, us fans or his team mates the last place he would be seen publicly is in a stadium full of fans signing the racist chant that started all of this.

To make it even worse, and we will never know for sure but it must have crossed his mind, or at least one of his advisers. Someone must have mentioned the fact that they would probably sing that song. 

Don't think any of this is necessarily "wrong", I just don't believe Enzo needs to be physically present to have apologised, spoken to his team mates, and started to make a mends. Conversation is the key component of this, which can be done through messages, calls, or even video chats. There'll be plenty of opportunities to build on this in person once he's back.

After all it's not as if Enzo is avoiding a return or refusing to come back to dodge the situation. 

There's just so much behind the scenes that we don't know or see to lament someone for not physically being in attendance IMO. 

[Morgs]

28 minutes ago, martin1905 said:

I'm all for someone deserving a holiday, I'm a proper union man,  as militant as they come and make sure I get every minute I'm entitled to and won't do a single second of work I don't have to, but sometimes you have to go above and beyond.

Just put yourself in any of his current team mates shoes though , especially the French ones.

He should have got on the first available plane back here and seen all the players he had offended to personally apologise. Instead he's at a football ground, being paraded around like a hero, smiling and waving and lone behold the same song is sung in the stadium, cleary a song the fans have taken to, I mean how stupid can he be? It was obvious they would sing it and he should have been nowhere near. He should have cut short his holiday and tried to sort this mess out. 

If he was genuinely sorry, genuinely wanted to make amends, genuinely cared about our club, us fans or his team mates the last place he would be seen publicly is in a stadium full of fans signing the racist chant that started all of this.

To make it even worse, and we will never know for sure but it must have crossed his mind, or at least one of his advisers. Someone must have mentioned the fact that they would probably sing that song. 

Spot on mate - couldn't agree more. Well said. 

[ROTG]

2 hours ago, paulw66 said:

Of course it is.

How many times do we play River Plate? 

How many time do we play inter Milan ?

[paulw66]

3 minutes ago, ROTG said:

How many time do we play inter Milan ?

more. 

[Blue Kratos]

1 hour ago, paulw66 said:

Yup.

And? He is from Buenos Aires. River are his boyhood team. I suspect he will always be a River fan. Who cares?

there are MANY examples of this sort of thing happening and nobody cared. 

As punishment I would make him wear a Boca Juniors shirt in training.

[ROTG]

21 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

more. 

So if you are black and say you like inter Milan you deserve clogg

if you are white, sing racist song and parade and wave to a crowd singing the same racist song it’s ok?

Time to get your head out of the sand. 

Edited July 22 by ROTG

[chiswickblue]

1 hour ago, Mark Kelly said:

Number 2  was Enzo wearing the shirt of his boyhood club whist paraded at half time as the crowd then sung the racist song he was already in trouble over. 

It just makes his apology look trite and him look a moron. 

Of the many things to blame Enzo for, I don't think this is one of them. In the twisted logic of people that don't understand what racism is, the River fans probably thought they were supporting Enzo (and the Argentina team in general) by singing that song and showing the rest of the world that they don't care about they think. I doubt that Enzo encouraged them to sing the song.

Sacking Enzo would put out a very strong message that Chelsea have a zero-tolerance approach to racism. We can't sack the other Argentina players and we can't sack the River fans.

I know that financial reality may make a sacking impossible. I don't know what the conditions are of the insurance policy the club has taken out, and if it includes payments in the event a player is sacked for gross misconduct. I also imagine this would be difficult to prove, as it was when we tried to sack Conte and stop paying him but eventually lost the case.

[paulw66]

23 minutes ago, ROTG said:

So if you are black and say you like inter Milan you deserve clogg

if you are white, sing racist song and parade and wave to a crowd singing the same racist song it’s ok?

Time to get your head out of the sand. 

yes, that's exactly what I said.

 

 

[ROTG]

8 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

yes, that's exactly what I said.

 

 

Then clarify. 
You seem to be defending the indefensible or am I missing something?

[Sleeping Dave]

My take on this is this, 

1. Enzo is not a very clever guy, possibly quite stupid even

2. He is a young lad who got caught up in the moment of winning a big title for his country

3. The song they sing is a song they do sing in his country. It's not pretty, but at most (at least the lines I've read) not outright rascist, referring to some of the french players heritage. I'd say that at most, the text can be deemed as very nationalistic. But rascist? Not for me. There are songs sung on the terraces in England week in and week out which are, in comparison, a lot more rascist than the line sung in the video. So the double standard here is quite extraordinary. 

4. It is true that a lot of the French players are not of french heritage, for a proud patriotic country I can see how that is something to get stuck on and used as a stick to beat them (France) with. My take is not that they are trying to put down the players worth, but rather highlight how a country like France is dependent on players with a heritage outside France (and hence, should not play for France but rather the country their family comes from)

5. Having said all this, it is unacceptable for highly paid professionals to not understand that this doesn't fly in 2024

6. It also lacks a lot of dignity and class

7. Parading in the River Plate jersey was stupid and he's been badly advised here. The result was expected and he should have known this

8. I think this will blow over, he'll get a massive fine from the club, possibly even a few games ban by FIFA

9. The club will have their hands full in trying to get the squad to move past this. Lots of difficult questions should be asked of Fofana. He has acted very badly here, this should have been an internal matter and solved internally. Posting this on social media makes me think Fofana is not very clever either, quite possibly stupid as well. 

10. Ultimately, this just highlights once again why we should focus on our own academy products where we have a massive input in their education and what the club expects from their behaviour. Buying young uneducated lads from South America (or any other country for that matter) will be a considerably higher risk - not only in how they will settle in the country, but also in terms of culture and values and how well they are educated.

 

The situation is unfortunate, and the club will take a massive hit here. If Enzo continues to underperform I reckon he'll be gone next summer at a considerable loss for the club. 

[paulw66]

36 minutes ago, ROTG said:

Then clarify. 
You seem to be defending the indefensible or am I missing something?

For avoidance of doubt (and there isn't for anyone else);

1. I am not defending the racism

2. I am dismissing the shirt wearing

 

[martin1905]

1 hour ago, xceleryx said:

Don't think any of this is necessarily "wrong", I just don't believe Enzo needs to be physically present to have apologised, spoken to his team mates, and started to make a mends. Conversation is the key component of this, which can be done through messages, calls, or even video chats. There'll be plenty of opportunities to build on this in person once he's back.

After all it's not as if Enzo is avoiding a return or refusing to come back to dodge the situation. 

There's just so much behind the scenes that we don't know or see to lament someone for not physically being in attendance IMO. 

Can't speak to anyone other than myself but if I was, let's say Fofana for arguments sake and had received an apology from Enzo by text message, phone call or even video call, I might be OK with that. To start. 

I would take into account he's across the other side of the world and it's not quite as easy as jumping in your car to go round and say your sorry.

Now considering these are multi millionaires, whilst I would appreciate he's away at the moment I think I'd expect him to maybe curtail his plans, get back as soon as possible and try to make amends. At that point I'd fully expect a proper apology, a very long debate and hope with some mediating and educating Enzo would want to learn and improve as a person we may be able to move on. 

What I would not expect to see is him, let's put the shirt thing aside as it's pretty irrelevant, being paraded around a stadium, all laughing and joking, smiling his little head off. That would wind me up, the fact that he's acting like nothing has happened and is being treated like a superstar. It would,  no doubt get my back up.  

It's very easy to say, well he's the other side of the world, he's entitled to a break  and I do get that but if I was being really cynical I'd argue he can't be that bothered about being there as by all accounts he was desperate to play in the Olympics so he can't be that bothered about his break, holiday, or even being back in Argentina as given the choice he'd be in France right now, oh the irony in that!!

Let's be brutally honest here, he's paid millions of pounds a year. To jump on a plane, do whatever you can to try and make it up to your teammate before going back on your holiday/break wouldn't be that inconvenient. It would have been the best thing he could have done and might have helped to build bridges. Doing nothing would have been bad, just disappearing for a couple of weeks would have been really poor, to be lauded by tens of thousands of racist scumbags would have been pretty shocking but to do that wearing the shirt those same racist fans are wearing , whilst they sing that song, if I'm Wesley Fofana I don't think I could ever forgive that.

[Sciatika]

Does anyone know anything about Caleb Wiley apart from him being a left-back?

[Chelsea_Matt]

1 hour ago, martin1905 said:

Can't speak to anyone other than myself but if I was, let's say Fofana for arguments sake and had received an apology from Enzo by text message, phone call or even video call, I might be OK with that. To start. 

I would take into account he's across the other side of the world and it's not quite as easy as jumping in your car to go round and say your sorry.

Now considering these are multi millionaires, whilst I would appreciate he's away at the moment I think I'd expect him to maybe curtail his plans, get back as soon as possible and try to make amends. At that point I'd fully expect a proper apology, a very long debate and hope with some mediating and educating Enzo would want to learn and improve as a person we may be able to move on. 

What I would not expect to see is him, let's put the shirt thing aside as it's pretty irrelevant, being paraded around a stadium, all laughing and joking, smiling his little head off. That would wind me up, the fact that he's acting like nothing has happened and is being treated like a superstar. It would,  no doubt get my back up.  

It's very easy to say, well he's the other side of the world, he's entitled to a break  and I do get that but if I was being really cynical I'd argue he can't be that bothered about being there as by all accounts he was desperate to play in the Olympics so he can't be that bothered about his break, holiday, or even being back in Argentina as given the choice he'd be in France right now, oh the irony in that!!

Let's be brutally honest here, he's paid millions of pounds a year. To jump on a plane, do whatever you can to try and make it up to your teammate before going back on your holiday/break wouldn't be that inconvenient. It would have been the best thing he could have done and might have helped to build bridges. Doing nothing would have been bad, just disappearing for a couple of weeks would have been really poor, to be lauded by tens of thousands of racist scumbags would have been pretty shocking but to do that wearing the shirt those same racist fans are wearing , whilst they sing that song, if I'm Wesley Fofana I don't think I could ever forgive that.

And…I’ve been Mudryk’s biggest critic but credit where it’s due; he returned early to work to improve. Enzo could have done that, and should have too, given how poor he’s been. 

[Ham]

2 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

And…I’ve been Mudryk’s biggest critic but credit where it’s due; he returned early to work to improve. Enzo could have done that, and should have too, given how INJURED he’s been. 

Fixed.  

In all seriousness, he's just finished a tournament and needs a break from football to prepare for next season.

It would be ridiculously counter-productive to bring him straight back.  

Come on! This pile-on is getting silly now.  

[Mark Kelly]

1 minute ago, Ham said:

Fixed.  

In all seriousness, he's just finished a tournament and needs a break from football to prepare for next season.

It would be ridiculously counter-productive to bring him straight back.  

Come on! This pile-on is getting silly now.  

He definitely should have some rest , but he did want to play in the Olympics which we blocked so he wouldn't have got any anyway . 

He may well have phoned all the players who unfollowed him , offered to come back for a clear the air session and they told him to do one , we will never know.

Being paraded around a stadium whilst the crowd sing "your" racist song though was moronic in the extreme , a wiser man would have got some mileage out of attempting to stop the chant to at least try and improve the situation .  

[Chelsea_Matt]

24 minutes ago, Ham said:

Fixed.  

In all seriousness, he's just finished a tournament and needs a break from football to prepare for next season.

It would be ridiculously counter-productive to bring him straight back.  

Come on! This pile-on is getting silly now.  

Why? He could have come in and done rehab at Cobham. IMO it would have been the right thing to do, Espesh if he can go to Argentina. 🇦🇷💀👀🫡

[Chelsea_Matt]

12 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

He definitely should have some rest , but he did want to play in the Olympics which we blocked so he wouldn't have got any anyway . 

He may well have phoned all the players who unfollowed him , offered to come back for a clear the air session and they told him to do one , we will never know.

Being paraded around a stadium whilst the crowd sing "your" racist song though was moronic in the extreme , a wiser man would have got some mileage out of attempting to stop the chant to at least try and improve the situation .  

And he lapped it up, the odious little prick. 💀💀💀🫡

[ChelseaJambo]

A lot being made of Fofana and his other team mates at Chelsea

It's quite possible that he isn't seeking forgiveness from them. Whilst teammates, they may not be friends in any capacity. 

It would appear he doesn't seem to think there is much wrong with the sentiment of the song, so why would he feel he needs forgiven by people he doesn't feel he offended?

[ROTG]

2 hours ago, Ham said:

Fixed.  

In all seriousness, he's just finished a tournament and needs a break from football to prepare for next season.

It would be ridiculously counter-productive to bring him straight back.  

Come on! This pile-on is getting silly now.  

You are right he could have gone Tenerife or anywhere apart from his home country especially after the statement made by his country men after his original post. 
 

The pile on is not silly unless you believe Enzo had done nothing wrong twice 

[My Blood Is Blue]

From what we’ve seen of Enzo, I just don’t like him very much. Seems like a fool with much more money than sense. I imagine he has a team of ‘friends’ around him making/taking loads of money from him as well.

Not a smart kid, being badly advised. It won’t end well for him.

[ROTG]

4 hours ago, Sciatika said:

Does anyone know anything about Wile E Coyote apart from him being a left-back?

Rumour has it he is not very good at catching roadrunners 

[ROTG]

1 minute ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

From what we’ve seen of Enzo, I just don’t like him very much. Seems like a fool with much more money than sense. I imagine he has a team of ‘friends’ around him making/taking loads of money from him as well.

Not a smart kid, being badly advised. It won’t end well for him.

The original transfer was surrounded about his commitment to Benfica, who were in no rush to sell him post WC. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

21 minutes ago, ROTG said:

The original transfer was surrounded about his commitment to Benfica, who were in no rush to sell him post WC. 

I bet they were given they only paid £8m for him. 🤡🌎 💰