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Former Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel has delivered his verdict on the recent controversy surrounding Enzo Fernández.
Fernández is caught in the middle of a racism controversy having filmed himself and his Argentina teammates singing a song making a mockery of French-African players during the celebration of their Copa America triumph.
The chant included wordings claiming that France’s players hail from Angola, Nigeria and Cameroon while also making unpleasant reference to a reported relationship between Kylian Mbappe and a transgender model.
Unsurprisingly, this hasn’t gone down well as the midfielder has been subjected to a lot of backlash and most notably has been unfollowed by some French players at Chelsea.
Investigation is going on regarding the incident but Fernández has apologized and has also received sympathy from Senegalese striker Nicolas Jackson.
Speaking on The Obi One podcast, Mikel spoke about how Maresca can best deal with the situation which could affect Chelsea’s season if not properly handled.
“The only way he can settle this is by making sure the team starts winning. If you start winning, it changes everything because the celebration, the hugs,” Mikel said.
“If Enzo comes back, first game and score a goal. You will see those players going to hug him.”
They have to go and hug him, they have to go and celebrate with him.
“Slowly and surely, that brings the team together. The thing is that time is a healer but Chelsea needs to start winning. They need to have a good start to the season if that needs to go away.
“If they don’t and it lingers and it breeds negativity around the whole place and we don’t want that. We have a bad season. We need to start well, we need to start winning.
“Enzo needs to find a way to deal with that and for me poor guy, what a way to start your Chelsea career and this is a massive thing.
“You have about nine, 10 players who unfollowed one of your stars and a player we think you need to get the best out of because if you get the best out of this guy.
“He is a fantastic footballer, him and Caicedo in that middle, we will dominate any team I promise you in the Premier League but probably not Manchester City.”
The Blues are currently on a pre-season tour in the US with Fernández missing due to his participation in the Copa America but he is expected to join the rest of the squad on July 29.
Chelsea have a tough start to the season as they will face defending champions Manchester City in their opening Premier League fixture.
