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Enzo Fernandez has been linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid recently and Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior was asked about the rumours on Tuesday
Liam Rosenior has all but confirmed Raheem Sterling's career at Chelsea is over but he's offered a lifeline to another out-of-favour star.
Sterling has not featured for the Blues' first team since May 2024 and has been frozen out of the first-team picture this season. Axel Disasi, who has not appeared for Chelsea this season, trained with the senior side on Tuesday morning ahead of their Champions League fixture with Pafos on Wednesday evening.
Rosenior has shed light on an encouraging conversation he shared with Disasi recently but was less enthusiastic about Sterling and his future at the club.
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"My decision on Axel, I had a really good meeting with him a couple of days ago," said Rosenior. "I wanted to catch up with him, see where he was in terms of his career. I got to know him really, really well. It was the right thing to be back involved with the group.
"Because of the situation he's been in, he's behind in terms of fitness, his match fitness, and we'll keep working with him really, really hard to get him up to speed."
On Sterling, Rosenior said: "Raheem at the moment, we're in conversations at the moment about different things and different options that are going on in his career. Hopefully that will be clearer in the next few days."
Rosenior will make his managerial debut in the Champions League tomorrow evening against Pafos. In Chelsea's two previous successes in Europe's most prestigious competition, the Blues have changed their manager midway through the season - and Rosenior is hoping to replicate the likes of Roberto Di Matteo and Thomas Tuchel.
"Hopefully, third time lucky, you're not lucky to win a Champions League," said the newly-appointed Chelsea head coach. "I've said to the players, if we focus on each game, not think too far ahead, perform as well as we possibly can. I never limit the ambitions of my group, no matter what group I'm working with."
Enzo Fernandez has been linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid in recent days but Rosenior was in no mood to discuss the Argentine potentially departing Stamford Bridge. He said: "It [the rumours] means nothing to me.
"When you're a world-class player, an outstanding player, there's always going to be speculation that you can't control. What I've said about Enzo on record is the case. 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, I know it was his birthday, but to be ill and cover the ground that he did, the way that he's trained and the way that he's performed.
"I'm speaking on the realities of the situation, which is he's a Chelsea player. He's very, 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."
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