Turbulent week at Chelsea sees European humiliation and Enzo doubts follow financial scandal

A reputation-harming financial scandal. An early and humiliating Champions League elimination. A star player casting doubt on his future.

Life at Chelsea often resembles a soap opera, and this week has been appointment viewing at a club where the decision-making of its past and present ownership has come under scrutiny.

It started with Chelsea receiving a Premier League-record fine and a suspended transfer ban because of business dealings — including $62 million of undisclosed payments to unregistered agents and third parties — under previous owner Roman Abramovich that, for some, have raised doubts about the legality of the trophy-winning squad that was built by the club.

It hasn’t taken long for the focus to shift to the shortcomings of Chelsea’s expensively assembled current squad and the methods of its inexperienced coach Liam Rosenior, who was recently hired in a bold call by Chelsea’s American ownership.

A 3-0 home loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday wrapped up a chastening 8-2 aggregate loss for Chelsea in the round of 16 in the Champions League. It equaled the team’s heaviest European defeat over two legs.

Todd Boehly, the U.S. businessman who fronts Chelsea’s ownership, was pictured walking onto the field at Stamford Bridge and down the tunnel reportedly toward the locker room after the game.

It’s not the sort of result Boehly and Clearlake Capital would have anticipated after overseeing a remarkable spending spree of around $2 billion on players since buying the club from Abramovich in 2022.

Neither is languishing in sixth place in the Premier League — outside the Champions League qualification spots — with eight matches remaining.

Problems are mounting for Rosenior, two months after he was thrust into his first Premier League job.

Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez threw something of a curve-ball after the PSG game by placing in doubt his future at the club.

Speaking to ESPN Argentina, Fernandez — asked whether he could guarantee being at Chelsea next season — was quoted as saying: “I don’t know. My focus is here for now. We have eight Premier League matches to play and the FA Cup. Then, the World Cup coming up so we’ll see after that.”

The Argentina international's comments were put to Rosenior in his post-match news conference and the coach said it was “hard for me to speak on speculation after a game.”

“I need to focus right now,” he said, "on the most important things, which is making sure we get a result against Everton on Saturday.”

Chelsea is set to go into that game without two of its most important players, with captain Reece James facing another spell out with a hamstring injury and first-choice center back Trevoh Chalobah carried off on a stretcher against PSG with a serious-looking ankle injury.

Throw in concerns over the goalkeeper situation — Rosenior has switched it up with Robert Sanchez and Filip Jorgensen in recent matches — and worries about fatigue after Chelsea's summer-long, Club World Cup-winning campaign, and the coach has some big calls to make for upcoming games.

“I have to make really difficult decisions that at the time probably don’t look great, to be honest,” Rosenior said, adding: “But I want to make the right decisions for the football club in the long term as well.”

Chelsea fans are clearly getting frustrated. They booed Rosenior's substitutions and were even heard chanting for Roman Abramovich during the PSG game.

“This is a fantastic football club where the fans want success instantly and that’s rightfully so for the size of the club,” Rosenior said. “I have to say I understand, because of the aggregate score line in the tie, why fans are frustrated.”

Are Rosenior's methods creating problems for himself?

There has been plenty of scrutiny, for example, on a huddle that Chelsea players have recently started to form before first and second halves of matches, which critics say antagonize opponents.

Before the Premier League defeat against Newcastle on Saturday, the referee found himself in the middle of Chelsea's circle of players on the center spot. Ahead the PSG game, the Chelsea huddle took place inside the PSG half.

There was also the bizarre sight of Rosenior giving a note containing tactical instructions first to a seemingly confused Alejandro Garnacho during a break in play against PSG, before the piece of paper was passed around to other Chelsea players on the field.

With the aggregate score being 8-2 at the time and there being less than 10 minutes remaining, the incident has provoked some online scorn.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Chelsea players huddle before the Champions League soccer match between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain in London, England, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)

Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez, left, challenges for the ball with PSG's Bradley Barcola during the Champions League soccer match between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain in London, England, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chelsea's head coach Liam Rosenior talks to Chelsea's Alejandro Garnacho during the Champions League soccer match between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain in London, England, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chelsea's head coach Liam Rosenior reacts during the Champions League soccer match between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain in London, England, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chelsea's Cole Palmer, Chelsea's Marc Cucurella, Chelsea's Moises Caicedo react during the Champions League soccer match between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain in London, England, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — When a male bullfinch smashed into Marcin Jarzębski’s apartment window, he took it in but realized it needed expert treatment. So the next morning he brought it to Warsaw’s new emergency room for wild birds.

He placed the tiny, plump bird with a black head, gray back and reddish chest feathers into a shoebox and took it as one of the first patients to the new drop-off center for sick and injured birds at the entrance of the Warsaw Zoo.

“The bird stayed with us overnight, but unfortunately it probably has a broken wing so we brought it to the bird hospital,” Jarzębski said.

The 24/7 emergency room in the Polish capital is actually a system of automated metal containers — something like a parcel room — where the containers can keep the birds warm in winter. The boxes send an immediate signal to the bird hospital just a few meters away, where veterinarians bring the birds for diagnosing and treatment.

Jarzębski filled out a questionnaire and carefully placed the shoebox and the paper form into one of the containers, assured that the bullfinch would now have its best chance of surviving.

The box system, designed based on ideas of the workers at the bird hospital, locks the birds in to keep them safe until a doctor can collect them. The drop-off center, which opened in February, is boosting the efficiency of a bird hospital that has operated at the Warsaw Zoo since 1998 and now treats about 9,000 patients annually.

It’s the brainchild of the zoo director, ornithologist Andrzej Kruszewicz, who said that people have a responsibility to care for creatures whose habitat they have altered, such as that of the bullfinch.

“This bird is a child of the forest who, during migration, didn’t understand the window,” Kruszewicz said.

“Humans often cause problems: car accidents, crashes into windows, electrocutions, tangled strings on storks’ legs,” he said. “All this is humans’ fault and they should feel responsible to give these birds a second chance.”

Typical patients at the Warsaw Zoo include common songbirds like tits, sparrows, thrushes and starlings, as well as pigeons. However, in a green city like Warsaw, which has the river Vistula running through it, rarer species also can appear.

Hospital manager Andżelika Gackowska says that warm winters caused by climate change have meant birds that were previously migrating south, including cranes or herons, are choosing to stay in Poland.

“Birds who stopped migrating because of warm winters were caught off guard by such a harsh winter as this year,” Gackowska said. Some birds developed anemia during the cold months because of tough conditions and insufficient nutrition, making them more vulnerable to disease.

The emergency room was financed in part with money from Warsaw’s citizen budget, a program that chooses projects based on their popularity in online surveys of city residents.

Warsaw Zoo workers say residents have become more conscious about providing help if they see a sick bird, although they also warn against overzealousness, saying that people shouldn't pick up young and healthy birds that they might believe are orphans.

“In spring, we always make an information campaign warning people not to ‘kidnap’ birds,” Gackowska said. “Birds take care of their small ones differently than humans. If we see a baby bird on the grass alone, it is likely just training how to fly independently.”

In the bird hospital, veterinarian assistants are constantly on their feet, feeding and giving medicine to the various birds, located across multiple rooms depending on species and degree of illness.

Once birds are stronger, they are placed in large cages outside, to readjust to their natural environment before being released.

Releasing the cured birds back into their habitat is the ultimate goal, veterinarian Ewelina Chudziak said.

“We are fighting for freedom,” she said.

Andzelika Gackowska, manager of the birds' hospital at the Warsaw Zoo, speaks to The Associated Press during an interview at the main treatment room of the birds' hospital at the Warsaw Zoo in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Ciobanu)

A robin waits for feathers in its tail to grow before it can be released, inside its cage at the birds' hospital in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Ciobanu)

Warsaw Zoo employee Filip Woluch poses for a photo as he holds a pigeon he took out of it's cage for feeding and cleaning at the birds' hospital at the Warsaw Zoo in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Ciobanu)

Warsaw Zoo employee Magdalena Zawadzka holds a wounded male bullfinch at the birds' hospital at the Warsaw Zoo in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Ciobanu)

A male bullfinch is treated at the birds' hospital at the Warsaw Zoo after crashing against the window of an apartment building, in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Ciobanu)

Warzaw Zoo director Andrzej Kruszewicz, left, veterinarian Ewelina Chudziak, center, and zoo employee Magdalena Zawadzka, right, discuss treatment plan for a wounded bullfinch at the birds' hospital of the Warsaw Zoo in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Ciobanu)

Treated storks are seen in an external cage outside the birds' hospital at the Warsaw Zoo in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Ciobanu)