How Chelsea are trying to polish ‘misunderstood’ Garnacho’s image

Liam Rosenior’s answer as to why Alejandro Garnacho is booed wherever he goes was a little like when you ask mum why the bullies at school are so mean. Jealously, sweetheart. Jealously.

‘I don’t understand why that happens,’ Chelsea’s head coach said of his £40million winger who could now appear against his former club, Manchester United, for the first time since leaving them last summer. ‘Maybe it’s because he can be such a threat.’

Whether Rosenior believes his own reasoning, or was merely being motherly, given four of Garnacho’s eight goals for Chelsea have come versus EFL sides in the cups, only he knows.

Chelsea could yet opt to try to recoup a good chunk of what they coughed up for Garnacho last summer. If so, United would be due 10 per cent of any deal, thanks to a sell-on clause. Before switching to Stamford Bridge, Garnacho turned down an approach from Al Nassr, the Cristiano Ronaldo team in Saudi Arabia. There was also an enquiry from Bayern Munich before they signed Luis Diaz, and Aston Villa. 

Those still interested may make themselves known, though it is believed Chelsea have not relayed anything to the 21-year-old Argentinian as of yet. No club would want to risk distracting one of its attackers amid a Champions League chase.

For now, Garnacho is still a Chelsea player, and there are those at Cobham who have tried to help coax some confidence out of him and correct that image which has seen him pigeonholed as a pompous popinjay of the Premier League. All bling, no bang. All flash, no finish. More hairstyles than performances in matches that matter. He has that reputation, rightly or wrongly.

So Chelsea thought the best way forward was to have him show his true self, and they arranged a television interview for Garnacho earlier this month with Premier League Productions.

While unlikely to win any popularity contests among fans, Garnacho came across as sincere in that conversation, or a ‘normal guy’ as he told his interviewer while stroking his bearded chin. How he is misunderstood as arrogant. How he is a humble father to his two-year-old son, Enzo. 

How he is no party animal – he is currently spending his evenings rewatching his favourite TV series Prison Break, with the lead characters Michael Schofield, Lincoln Burrows and Theodore ’T-Bag’ Bagwell tattooed down his right arm. How he should not be judged simply because he is smothered in ink, or wears sunglasses, or happens to have blond highlights in his hair.

He also discussed never forgetting what United did for him and conceding that he himself made mistakes, presumably referring to some of his antics on social media – like when he wore an Aston Villa shirt with fellow outcast Marcus Rashford’s name on the back, or when he was advocating criticism of Erik ten Hag, or when his brother, Roberto, accused Ruben Amorim of throwing him under the bus by not starting him in their 2025 Europa League final loss to Tottenham Hotspur.

That controversial history was why this week’s claims of him sending a cryptic message to Chelsea hardly came as a surprise. Apparently, he had deleted anything Chelsea-related on his TikTok, and only kept up the Manchester United content, as if begging for his old side to bring him back.

Except, it was fake news. Chelsea insiders checked it out – you can imagine they initially feared yet another one of their squad had gone rogue after Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella – and discovered Garnacho had done nothing untoward this time. He hasn’t uploaded anything to TikTok since signing for Chelsea. The club’s name is in his bio, and his picture is him celebrating scoring against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup’s semi-finals. He had recently reposted one video – of him speaking in that interview arranged by the club – and that’s it. But then Garnacho’s name is newsworthy.

Despite his kind words towards United, the visiting fans will boo Garnacho any chance they get at Stamford Bridge, still seeing him as a spoiled sort with ideas above his station. He had a taste of it in the reverse fixture at Old Trafford, a 2-1 loss when he was an unused substitute.

Chelsea did their homework on Garnacho’s character before bidding to sign him last summer, and were clearly comfortable with what they heard. United initially wanted the £70m they had also quoted Napoli in January. Chelsea countered with £25m. Then United lowered to £50m. In the end, they settled on £40m, with the deal brokered by Carlos Cambeiro, the director of the Lead3rs agency, who also look after Maxi Oyedele at fellow BlueCo club Strasbourg.

With Mykhailo Mudryk suspended for failing a doping test, Jadon Sancho not signed permanently after his loan and Tyrique George placed up for sale, Chelsea needed to add to their left wing. Garnacho was still a gamble for Chelsea, who have since seen him dash down too many dead ends on that side. The statistics say he has completed 11 dribbles in 1,148 minutes in the Premier League – even fewer than Jamie Gittens, who has 13 in 490, and Estevao Willian, who has 29 in 829, and only one more than academy defender Josh Acheampong’s 10 in 574.

Garnacho believes there are some mitigating circumstances for his faltering form. He arrived later than everyone else, with no pre-season, and it takes time to adapt to a new club and city. Chelsea will likely take that into consideration, too, and in truth, they have bigger problems than Garnacho in their clumsy chase for Champions League football.

For example, they have not secured a Premier League clean sheet since January 17. That was in a 2-0 win over Brentford, and it was a different world then. Thomas Frank was still Tottenham manager, Mohamed Salah was still away at AFCON and had possibly played his last game for Liverpool – he’s now appeared 17 times since – and Michael Carrick was in the first week of his new job as manager of United.

Chelsea could do with finally stopping an opposing side from scoring at one end, and hope that at the other, their struggling attackers such as Garnacho finally find their groove before it is too late.