New Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca takes charge of the team for the first time in the early hours of Thursday, though his first serious off-field challenge has already landed on his desk. He now faces the prospect of a deeply divided dressing room to mend.
The Blues take on Wrexham in California in a pre-season friendly draped in Hollywood glamour thanks to Wrexham’s owners, the actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
But the backdrop to the match has been dominated by a racism storm raging around star player Enzo Fernandez, the club’s £107 million signing, who last week published on social media a video of Argentina’s players singing a racist and homophobic song directed at French players, in the hours after their Copa America victory.
Maresca must get to grips with the situation immediately, setting a commanding but caring tone for his Chelsea tenure. The Italian’s public stance overnight, when talking for the first time as Blues boss, left a lot to be desired, downplaying the potential fall-out of the scandal.
“I don’t think there are any bad intentions, so starting from that point, for me it is quite easy,” he said. “The player already did a statement apologising. The club did the same so there are not many things to add but the only thing I can say from my point of view that I can add is that they are all young with good intentions.
“Good guy, good person, good human being. There was not any bad intention.”
Maresca refused to dig into any further detail of the Blues’ handling of the situation when quizzed for the first time, other than to reveal that Fernandez’s apologies are deemed sufficient for him to join the pre-season tour next week.
It must be hoped that what remains private has been much stronger — a comprehensive process and education, ensuring all those affected by Fernandez’s video feel satisfied with the resolution. That could be no easy task, given Fernandez’s Chelsea team-mate Wesley Fofana termed the video “uninhibited racism” in his own social media post, before the Blues launched an internal disciplinary procedure.
Fernandez has apologised publicly and privately to Chelsea team-mates, many of whom unfollowed him on social media after the video emerged.
Maresca insists all will run smoothly when Fernandez returns from his post Copa America holiday and joins his team-mates on their USA pre-season tour next week, but dealing with the situation is sure to be a tough early test of his management skills. What happens next could tell us a lot about his abilities to navigate the many challenges of managing a club of Chelsea’s stature. A good first step would be Chelsea finding a way for at least part of this process to be made public. Maresca has arrived at Chelsea with the total backing of the Blues hierarchy, but also without any full managerial experience at Premier League level.
The former West Brom and Juventus midfielder might have led Leicester to the second-tier Championship title last term, but his Stamford Bridge step-up is shaping up to be a baptism of fire.
Maresca must find a way to educate Fernandez, who has since said the chants do not “reflect my beliefs or character”, and grasp the opportunity for change.
Both Maresca and Chelsea need the matter settled, and with a positive outcome, for the Italian’s tenure to start on the right footing and with the vital support of the Chelsea dressing room. Maresca was Chelsea’s overwhelming favourite to succeed Mauricio Pochettino at the Blues helm in part because the Stamford Bridge hierarchy view him as a players’ coach — a boss who knows what makes players tick.
This is an immediate opportunity to prove right a Chelsea board who will be demanding much better on the pitch than last season’s disappointing sixth-place finish in the Premier League, winning only a place in the Europa Conference League.
Chelsea’s bosses believe Maresca can get the best out of Fernandez in a tactical system that will allow the World Cup-winning midfielder to flourish. Now Maresca must help Fernandez educate and elevate himself off the field too.
