‘It turns their head’ – Joe Cole fears Real Madrid will convince Chelsea star to leave

Joe Cole fears Enzo Fernandez could have ‘his head turned’ should Real Madrid reach out to tempt him into a move away from Chelsea.

The Argentina international is into his third year as a Chelsea player having joined the Blues for a then-club record fee of £106million from Benfica in January 2023.

He has been a fixture in the side under each head coach he has played under in west London but interest from abroad continues to mount.

Paris Saint-Germain have been credited with interest in the 25-year-old while Real Madrid are also admirers.

Fernandez has a contract at Stamford Bridge until 2031 and given the price Chelsea paid to bring him to the capital it would likely require an enormous fee to tempt the Blues into doing business.

But former Chelsea star Cole believes an offer to join Los Blancos would tempt any player – including Fernandez.

‘He’s an important player, a real leader in that dressing room,’ Cole told Paddy Power. ‘He’s getting to the age now where he’s going to want to win the big trophies.

‘If Real Madrid comes calling for any player, it turns their heads. But it’s massively important that Chelsea keep him. I’m not sure what the price tag would be. 

‘If this was the Chelsea of 10/15 years ago, you’d say there’s no chance that we’d sell our best players until you absolutely have to. But nowadays I just don’t know.’

 It has been reported Chelsea have no intention of selling Fernandez with Liam Rosenior this week dismissing talk over his future.

‘It means nothing to me,’ Rosenior said.

‘When you’re a world-class player, an outstanding player, there’s always going to be speculation that you can’t control. He’s been outstanding in the time I’ve worked with him.

‘He’s even surprised me in a good way in terms of what he did on Saturday – to be ill and cover the ground that he did, the way that he’s trained and the way that he’s performed.

‘He’s a Chelsea player. He’s very important to me. And I think we’re going to have a really, really good, hopefully winning relationship moving forward in the short term and the long term.’