Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca caught in 'catch-22' as Todd Boehly decision backfires

Only 17 days into his reign as Chelsea’s new head coach, Enzo Maresca is already facing a full-blown crisis to resolve in the dressing room. The west London club have been accustomed to dealing with distasteful incidents over the years, but the current situation facing the Italian boss is unprecedented and for that, Enzo Fernandez is primarily to blame.

Less than 24 hours after celebrating his latest international success with Argentina following the Copa America final victory over Colombia, Fernandez was staring at a racism storm after posting a controversial video on social media.

Fernandez and several of his Argentina team-mates could be heard singing an offensive song which, among a number of unsavoury slurs, claimed France’s national team players were not French but actually African.

Once that video clip was sent into the public realm, there was no turning back – and a moment of unadulterated idiocy morphed into something much more serious.

Fernandez won’t need reminding that seven of his Chelsea team-mates are French – colleagues with whom he appeared to be quite close.

But it’s fair to say that Christopher Nkunku, Malo Gusto, Axel Disasi, Benoit Badiashile, Lesley Ugochukwu and Malang Sarr took a dim view of Fernandez’s chants, while Wesley Fofana went one step further and called their behaviour an example of football’s ‘inhibited racism’.

It is a terrible look for Chelsea and Fernandez, yet Fofana had every right to make his feelings clear. And the fallout from this ugly episode could be fatal for Fernandez’s career in England if it is not handled properly.

Maresca hasn’t even had the chance to meet the 23-year-old in person since taking over, but it wouldn’t take much to guess how their first meeting will go down. Fernandez was quick to apologise on social media, while the club condemned the incident and vowed to conduct an internal investigation.

But for Maresca, the issues run much deeper. He is now caught in a ‘catch-22’ situation whereby he can’t really come out of this situation in a positive way and his authority could be undermined at a very early stage.

If he brings Fernandez back into the fold when he hasn’t made peace with his French colleagues, the ex-Leicester boss risks alienating his squad. However, he knows that benching the Argentina international isn’t a realistic option.

For one, Fernandez cost £107million to sign from Benfica and Chelsea are paying that fee in large instalments. The midfielder is also paid an estimated £180,000-a-week and his contract runs until 2032. It seems Todd Boehly didn’t think about a contingency plan when handing out an eight-year contract to their previous club-record signing.

The silver lining for Maresca is that Fernandez isn’t due back from holiday for at least another few weeks, which gives the tactician time to consider his next move. By then, the external outrage may well have died down. Internally, it could be a different matter altogether, particularly if Fofana, Nkunku, Gusto and co. are not in a forgiving mood.

But Fernandez does already have one ally in Nicolas Jackson, who publicly showed his support for his team-mate on Wednesday. With some help from the leaders in the squad, Reece James, Conor Gallagher and Ben Chilwell, Maresca may be able to settle the issue before it spirals out of control.