Graham Potter is the right man to turn things around at Chelsea – he just needs patience from the club’s fans, according to Enzo Fernandez.
Fernandez joined Chelsea in a Premier League record £105million transfer from Benfica on January transfer deadline day. The 22-year-old arrived at Stamford Bridge during a difficult period for the club and is yet to taste victory in his four games so far.
Chelsea are 10th in the Premier League table, 11 points off the top four, and have won just two of their past 15 matches in all competitions. That dismal record comes despite Todd Boehly’s consortium overseeing a £600m spend in the past two transfer windows.
Supporters are disgruntled and showed their displeasure at Potter by booing at the final whistle following a shocking 1-0 home defeat by bottom club Southampton last weekend. Fernandez is still settling in at Chelsea, but he is convinced that Potter can get the team purring, if given the opportunity.
“I would encourage the fans to be patient,” he told The Telegraph in Spanish through a translator “We have got a lot of new faces here and it is a restructuring of the club and the playing staff. Trust us.”
He added: “Trust the players, trust the backroom staff, trust the manager. Never forget that we are representing you, that we are trying to win games, starting on Sunday. Then we can start to turn things around.”
HAVE YOUR SAY! Do you agree with Enzo Fernandez? Can Graham Potter turn things around at Chelsea? Comment below.
Chelsea have scored just six goals in their past 15 games in all competitions, with 23 strikes in 23 Premier League matches underlining their biggest problem. The issue is made all the more staggering by the money spent on attacking players like Mykhaylo Mudryk, Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke.
As a midfielder, Fernandez is not responsible for finding the back of the net. Despite their current struggles, he remains confident that he made the right choice in joining Chelsea, who fought hard to get the deal over the line amid friction with Benfica last month.
“I was very happy to have the confidence of a club like Chelsea,” Fernandez said. “I know it’s a club that traditionally have been fighting on all fronts to win cups, always involved in the final stages of the Champions League and a club with a winning mentality.
“The project and the plans in place here really excited me. Now it’s a case of being here, wanting to take Chelsea as far as they want to go, me along with all my team-mates.”
As well as fighting for points in the Premier League, starting at Tottenham on Sunday, Chelsea face a huge match against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on March 7. The Blues have a 1-0 deficit to overturn at Stamford Bridge after Karim Adeyemi’s goal earned Dortmund a win in the first leg of the last-16 clash.
FREE £2 shop bet in William Hill shops with Saturday's Daily Mirror , valid on the Manchester United v Newcastle game. Don't miss your chance for a free flutter on the game everyone's talking about with your paper.
