LONDON — Enzo Fernández has been named on the bench for Chelsea’s Premier League opener against Fulham amid uncertainty around his future at the club.
The Argentina international has been pursued by Manchester City this summer, but the club didn’t meet the Aug. 14 deadline to match Chelsea’s £120 million ($161.8m) valuation of the midfielder.
However, Alonso made clear in his pre-match news conference last week that Fernández’s future lies at Stamford Bridge and has included him in his first Premier League squad as Chelsea manager.
Chelsea’s record signing Morgan Rogers has been named in the starting lineup as has fellow new arrival Maxence Lacroix. However, Marco Palestra and Moisés Caicedo have been left out of the squad.
“During the week they had a few setbacks,” Alonso said pre-match.
“With Moi [Caicedo] — and with any [player] — we don’t want to take too much risk. They weren’t ready to play tonight. We need to go week-by-week but for tonight they were not ready.”
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Alonso’s debut as Chelsea manager comes against Alvaro Arbeloa, who is also taking charge of his first game as Fulham boss. Both played for Real Madrid , with Arbeloa also replacing Alonso as manager at the Bernabéu in January after his surprise sacking.
Like Alonso, Arbeloa’s tenure at Madrid proved short-lived and trophyless. He took over at Craven Cottage this summer following Marco Silva’s departure after five years in the role.
The former Spain defender has brought two of his former Madrid players — Gonzalo García and César Palacios — with him to west London. The duo have been named in the starting lineup against Chelsea.
When asked about the team Alonso has picked for the game, he said: “You’ll have to ask Xabi! I think maybe they have some injured or some problems. I will ask him later.
“We expected another eleven for starting, for sure.”