Former Wales international Dean Saunders has one concern surrounding Enzo Maresca despite Chelsea’s Conference League triumph.
Chelsea were able to win the Conference League trophy after beating Real Betis 4-1 in the final during the week, while they also managed to qualify for the Champions League.
Maresca really impressed the Italian media with how he turned the Conference League final around after the Blues went 1-0 down in the first half.
Going forward, though, Saunders fears that the 45-year-old may not be able to impress his club’s supporters.
While Chelsea fans may be happy with Maresca right now, that was not always the case during the 2024/25 Premier League campaign.
Maresca felt Chelsea supporters’ fury in April after the Blues found themselves 2-0 down to Ipswich Town at Stamford Bridge.
If Chelsea start to lose games again while playing bad football, Saunders thinks fans will turn on the Italian once more.
“I was interested to hear what Cole Palmer said [after Conference League final],” Saunders stated on talkSPORT. “They asked him, two great passes, two great assists, what do you think? He said I just got fed up of passing the ball backwards and sideways, so I started trying to pick people out.
“And if you asked a Chelsea fan do they like what they’re watching at the moment, 90% of them would say no, boring, not passing the ball forward quickly enough. That’s why they were going after the manager.
“If you keep winning, it keeps the wolves from the door, but the minute you start losing games and you’re not playing the ball forward quickly enough so it’s nice to watch, the fans will go after him again.”
For now, though, Chelsea supporters cannot have too many complaints about Maresca. Again, the Chelsea manager guided the team to European silverware and Champions League qualification. That is what Maresca was brought in to do and he managed to do it.
Enzo Maresca told he’s had a ‘brilliant’ season
It certainly will be interesting to see what Maresca can accomplish with this Chelsea team in the near future. There is a lot of talent in it and the club have the funds to add to that.
From what he has seen from Maresca so far, though, Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has been very impressed.
When Scholes discussed Chelsea’s first season under Maresca, he said: “The manager has done great, really, when you think about it. I was sat here last year saying he could be the first one to go. It was such a mess. For him to get them to finish fourth and win that [Conference League] was brilliant.”
Next term, the goal will be to go on a deep run in the Champions League and qualify for the tournament again. Another trophy will not hurt either, though challenging for the Premier League title may be a bit much to ask of this young Chelsea side.
After all of the money that the club has spent, however, eventually they have to be in a title race.
