According to The Athletic, Chelsea need to weigh Enzo's off-field issues against his tactical fit, and selling him might provide the team with better balance.

On Monday, Fulham fans at Craven Cottage gave Enzo a preview of the reception he might receive at various Premier League stadiums this season, regardless of whether he ends up a Chelsea or Manchester City player next month.

When his name was announced among Chelsea's substitutes before kickoff, hostile boos erupted. As he walked across the pitch to the bench ahead of the second half, home fans chanted insulting songs.

The pain of England's loss to Argentina in a fiery World Cup semi-final last summer has not yet healed. Further fueling English fans' emotions was Enzo's compatriot Valentín Barco standing beside him. Earlier, in Atlanta, Jude Bellingham had slapped Barco after Enzo celebrated an equalizer in front of England players.

Chelsea fans at Craven Cottage, however, responded to Enzo with applause and chanted his name. Football cannot escape its tribal nature, and abuse from opposing fans often galvanizes one's own supporters. By the final whistle, most of the away section expressed their support for Enzo, who gave his match shirt to a fan as he left the field.

If Enzo joins Maresca at Manchester City, no one expects this goodwill to last. Maresca was already unpopular at Stamford Bridge and is now widely disliked.

The fatigue from the transfer saga is spreading. After Chelsea defeated Fulham 3-2 on Monday, manager Enzo Maresca expressed his weariness with the lack of progress in an interview. When asked about Enzo's future by BBC's Match of the Day, he said: "In football, I'm not surprised by anything. We'll wait and see. I hope we know what will happen in the future, but we'll have to see what happens this week."

From an off-field perspective, Chelsea's reasons for selling Enzo this summer are understandable. For most of his time at the club, he has caused problems through public actions and the dealings of his agent, Javier Pastore. He publicly criticized club decision-makers last season, was then linked with Real Madrid, and this summer has not deterred Maresca and Manchester City's interest in him.

Even if his only goal is to stay at Stamford Bridge and secure a significantly increased new contract, his tactics are provocative and confrontational. If he stays and gets a pay raise, who can guarantee that something similar won't happen again in a year or two? If the two sides cannot reach agreement on a new contract, how confident can Chelsea currently be that he will be a reliable player for Alonso this season?

In contrast, the footballing reasons for letting Enzo go are discussed less. Manchester City could indeed be significantly strengthened if Maresca gets Enzo, but Chelsea keeping him also carries the real risk of making the team Alonso is building distinctly worse.

Enzo's supporters among Chelsea fans might find this puzzling. Without doubt, he was one of the club's best performers last season, scoring 10 goals as a midfielder in a single Premier League season for the first time and 15 goals across all competitions. He successfully reinvented himself into Stamford Bridge's best goal-scoring number 8 since Frank Lampard, and is also a hugely talented passer, which deserves full credit.

But this transformation also reveals that Enzo's Chelsea career has taken an unusual path. In January 2023, Chelsea signed him from Benfica for €120 million, approximately £106 million, hoping he would replace Jorginho and become the deep-lying playmaker for a new generation of world-class midfielders. He played in this position for most of the difficult latter half of the 2022-23 season and throughout Pochettino's tenure in 2023-24.

The problem is that Chelsea's defense was never solid enough when Enzo operated deep in midfield. Although he has worked hard to improve his physical condition in recent years, his athleticism may still be insufficient for covering large areas of the midfield, and his defensive awareness is not sharp enough to effectively disrupt opponent build-up play.

Pochettino seriously doubted the viability of a double pivot with Enzo and Caicedo. Even with Gallagher leading the high press ahead of them, Chelsea were frequently torn apart in defensive transitions and conceded 63 goals in the 2023-24 Premier League season.

Maresca's solution was to push Enzo higher up into the left half-space, while an inverted full-back tucked into central midfield alongside Caicedo. Chelsea also slowed down their possession play to keep the team more compact and better manage opponent counter-attacks. These adjustments helped stabilize the team's overall structure and allowed the Argentine to play his best football since joining Stamford Bridge, but at the cost of other areas, most notably Palmer's significant drop in form.

From early indications, Alonso will not adopt the same arrangement in his 3-4-2-1 system. Enzo could play well as a left-sided number 10 behind João Félix, but this summer's big-money signing of Morgan Rogers for approximately £117 million means he will occupy one of those two positions alongside Palmer. Should either be unavailable, Estêvão is fully capable of stepping in.

Enzo often plays in a deeper role for Argentina and has achieved great success there. However, beyond recognizing the fundamental differences between national team and club football, it should also be remembered that Argentina showed defensive vulnerabilities in almost every game during the last two World Cups, and conceded four goals in two matches against Cape Verde and Egypt on their way to the 2026 World Cup final.

It's obviously unfair to blame these issues on any single player, especially a midfielder, but these performances do help us see the bigger picture. Over the past three and a half years, every manager appointed by BlueCo has struggled to make the Enzo and Caicedo double pivot work consistently defensively. Alonso is very intelligent and may have tactical solutions in mind, but wouldn't it be easier if Chelsea received an ideal offer from Manchester City to let him go and reinvest the funds?

However, this path is not without risk as the transfer window draws to a close. The transfer domino effect of key midfielders this summer has largely played out, and many players who have not yet moved play for clubs unwilling to sell and without urgent financial need to risk their season's objectives by letting players go. Alex Scott and Adam Wharton are examples of this.

It is entirely conceivable that Chelsea could sell Enzo to Manchester City for a price higher than their January 2023 purchase price, but at the same time, the club might also have to pay far more than a player's actual value for his replacement. This is the nature of today's inflated transfer market, but it might still be preferable to keeping Enzo and leaving Alonso with an intractable problem when balancing the team.

Even in defeat, Fulham successfully exposed weaknesses in Chelsea's defensive structure at Craven Cottage. Caicedo's return from injury will help, but Lavia also has his own defensive limitations. Signing the right number 6 could establish an effective balance for a team that already boasts one of the Premier League's most potent attacks.

The identity of this player will be decided by Chelsea's sporting management team, who always maintain a list of potential targets. The wealth of evidence gathered during the decision-making process in the final days of August will undoubtedly lead them to the conclusion that Enzo is not the right fit.

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