Enzo Maresca has said Chelsea’s transfer plans depend on whether they qualify for the Champions League. The head coach, who insisted Cole Palmer’s goalscoring drought was all in the player’s head, also hinted at wanting to add more experience to his squad.
Maresca, who will serve a touchline ban at Saturday’s home game against Everton, said Chelsea have the second-youngest squad in Europe and said he was often having to place his trust in teenagers when he makes substitutions. The club have adopted a policy of signing talented youngsters under the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership and will prioritise deals for a centre-back, a winger and a striker this summer.
Chelsea are sixth with five games left and Maresca acknowledged that financial regulations meant his budget may be dented if he fails to lead his side into the Champions League. “Football is not five, 10 years ago when the rules were different,” the head coach said. “Today you have to be careful how much you spend. It will be a completely different kind of target if we finish in the Champions League.”
Chelsea continue to face questions over whether they have enough leaders. There have been claims that they looked into signing Virgil van Dijk before the 33-year-old committed his future to Liverpool. Maresca considered whether he would be open to bringing in an older player this summer. “When you have experience you have something more, no doubt,” he said. “But the ones that struggle in terms of experience this year, they have already won more in terms of experience. Next year they can be better.”
Chelsea would have at least briefly gone top if they had beaten Everton in December. Maresca was criticised for insisting at the time that they were not title challengers but he laughed off suggestions that his comments demonstrated a lack of ambition.
The Italian, who said Christopher Nkunku was back in the squad after being dropped for last week’s win over Fulham, was asked whether his team’s struggles since Christmas would harden them. “We are a better team today than two or three months ago because we went through this bad moment,” Maresca said. “And if you want to grow, you need this moment as a team.
“We are the youngest team in the Premier League. And the second [youngest] in Europe. For some games, we have on the bench three or four players [born in] 2006, 2007 or 2008. Do you see that? No. I see that.”
The discussion turned to Tyrique George after the 19-year-old winger came off the bench to equalise at Fulham. Maresca said Chelsea managers who worked for Roman Abramovich had the option of replacing star strikers with another experienced forward. “We trust Ty,” he said. “When [Didier] Drogba was here and the manager changed Drogba who was inside? Fernando Torres? Now we change Nico [Nicolas Jackson] with Ty from the academy. You see that? I see that.”
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Maresca said Chelsea’s tactics had nothing to do with Palmer going 16 games without scoring. “For sure, it’s mental,” he said. “I don’t think it’s tactical, I don’t think it’s technical, because Cole is still the same player that scored this season with us – 14 goals in the Premier League in 20 games. Cole is the same one. The style of football we play is the same. The manager is the same. The club is the same. So nothing changes around Cole and Cole doesn’t change. It’s just mentally in this moment. You can see that he is a little worried because he wants to help the team.”
