I wrote last week how Enzo Maresca has been growing on me at least in terms of attitude, mentality, and how he has been conducting himself in public.
I don’t have any major issues with Maresca right now, despite what some people on here might think. I saw some odd comments on the Substack App over the weekend saying I was calling for Maresca to be sacked after the Manchester United defeat!? I didn’t write anything even close to that but OK, sure….
Last season I was certainly writing that I would be absolutely fine if Maresca was sacked, but that was during a period when we were absolutely awful, like proper awful, and it wasn’t even a debate. I think some people have short memories at times. I could only see us moving forward with a change, and also, you might forget that I hear a lot from inside Cobham and from players, so I knew just how toxic it did get at one point. Many of the players were not backing or trusting how Maresca wanted to set up. It’s up to you whether you believe that or not, but for me, it was a fact due to those who were telling me it. So that was my reasoning at the time, reasoning that I felt was very much warranted based on what I was hearing and how the fans had also very much turned on the manager at that point – it rarely manages to get realigned when things get this bad.
But things moved on, the players started to trust Maresca a bit more, and better relationships were built leading into a better period of the season for us, ending it strong and then having a good summer.
Right now, I am absolutely NOT calling for Maresca to be sacked. The blame does not rest with him at the moment. He’s not immune to criticism and I will always call out what I see as his mistakes and question his decisions. Why wouldn’t I do that? Nobody is perfect. But I’m not calling for him to be sacked five games into the new season. I even wrote yesterday that I will look to conclude my opinions on everything once I’ve seen how we end this season (who says we wont still go on to have a good season?). We’ve got new players in again, back in the Champions League, just won two trophies, and things have got much better despite our last two games. I’m not going to judge anything yet, absolutely not. I will always form opinions over time and opinions can change, that’s OK.
What Chelsea did at the end of last season was a success, it was an achievement. I’m not about to play any of that down. To end the season how we did, after an awful period mid-season, was a big step in the right direction and was hugely positive. Again, have people got such short memories to be forgetting that already? Maresca and the team have improved since this time last year, for me that’s not a debate.
But are we there yet? Absolutely not. But my main question marks are still with the huge amounts of money spent on the squad, the squad build overall, some of the signings we have made, some of the signings we have NOT made, and our general operations. I mean, we still don’t have a front of shirt sponsors for God’s sake. The issues we are still seeing are down to this squad still missing key elements and experience, and problem positions still not being addressed in the summer, not the manager.
The manager certainly carries question marks still, of course he does, he’s also still very inexperienced. I’ve been on and off with Maresca, but my main gripes are not with him right now, they’re with those above him.
We must also remember that Maresca asked for a new goalkeeper and a new centre back this summer, but got neither. We can ALL see that both of those positions were needed. However, Maresca also asked to prioritise the attack first. So can he complain too much? Again though, it all just lacked that vital element that has been continuously missing since these new owners came in, BALANCE!!!!
