2 months ago
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AS MESSAGES go, it was pretty clear.
None of those subtle mind games journalists must turn to when they have failed to shoehorn a line out of some dullard manager who has said nothing in a press conference.
Alamy
RexBut then Enzo Maresca doesn’t do dodging and weaving in the public eye. He says it how it is in a calm, clipped manner.
And it’s straight to the point.
Like his curt and curious response to one innocent questioner asking whether Chelsea is his chance to forge a reputation for himself as a Premier League manager.
Neither Maresca’s tone nor his expression wavered as he replied: “I have a wife, four kids and a mum and dad. I have a reputation already.”
Blunt if a little weird, right?
So when Chelsea’s fifth manager in 2½ years declared his steadily rejuvenating team are nowhere near as good as Manchester City or Arsenal because they have stuck by their respective managers, he was simply talking sense.
He was also telling his bosses at Stamford Bridge in no uncertain terms the sackings must stop if they want to get the club back to where they enjoyed so many trophy-laden seasons.
Some of his predecessors said the same and everyone else in the room rolled their eyes.
RexFOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS
When Maresca declared just a couple of weeks into the job that “I call the shots”, we yawned.
Yet there is a growing sense Maresca might be the man to finally tame Chelsea’s Wild West owners — the American-led posse of investment specialists and financiers who think they know everything but know very little about actual football.
He is spot on that his team is a long way back from City and Arsenal.
Sunday’s scrambled 1-1 draw at home to ten-man Nottingham Forest confirms that.
Chelsea occupy fourth place in the Premier League mainly by default because Tottenham, Newcastle and particularly Manchester United, are so unpredictable.
Yet it doesn’t take 20-20 vision to catch a glimpse of Maresca’s hand at work as he backs up his strong words with deeds.
Nowhere is that more noticeable than in Mykhailo Mudryk’s plight.
The winger is expected to start Ukraine’s Nations League game with Georgia tonight.
Yet he has started only one Premier League game for Chelsea since the back end of August and is slowly but surely sliding down the ladder of importance under Maresca.
It happens to most players at some point.
Only Mudryk, 23, was a symbol of the new Chelsea — an expensive showpiece signing snared after a protracted chase at the behest of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, when they were feeling their way in the transfer market.
The cynical view is that the main attraction was purely that Arsenal wanted Mudryk too.
Thus starry-eyed Chelsea swooped simply to beat a rival, because that’s how they perceived business should be done.
Whatever the truth, it cost an upfront £62million, plus add-ons.
A new manager ditching a chairman’s marquee signing so unceremoniously takes balls.
But now Mudryk can’t get anywhere near the first team for Premier League games.
Ironically, he has played more minutes under Maresca than any other Chelsea boss . . . just not in the games that matter.
Instead it has been the Conference League and a starring role against Barrow in the Carabao Cup.
For a new manager to ditch a chairman’s marquee signing so unceremoniously takes balls.
Not only that, he brought in Jadon Sancho to play in Mudryk’s position.
A one-two combo Sugar Ray Robinson would have been proud of.
No subtle psychology either. Mudryk’s out and my man’s in — so Behdad and Boehly must suck it up.
And they seem to be.
Maresca has since gone on to surgically dissect his entire squad — one for the Premier League and one for everything else.
It’s up to those in the cup squad to impress their way on to Maresca’s A-list and for those in it to do enough to stay there. Simple and effective.
Common sense at Chelsea? It will never catch on.
It’s a win-win
WE have finally reached a point in football where both sides claim to have won.
The hubris-driven reactions of Manchester City and the Premier League to their latest courtroom battle over dodgy dealings added to the confusion for many.
GettyYet it may well have inadvertently opened up a whole new approach to the beautiful game in a world where winning means big-time wonga.
Imagine a sport where nobody loses? Where the result doesn’t matter because you can simply say ‘I won’ and everybody else is so bloody confused that they can’t be a***d to argue.
Sounds ludicrous. But a few years ago we’d have said that about VAR, a Champions League where you don’t have to be a champion to play in it, the 39th game, kick-offs at 8pm on a Saturday, £100 a ticket, cup competitions loaded to favour the big teams, players on £500k a week and half- and-half scarves.
Oh, and £25 for a bobble hat in some club shops, which I saw a few weeks back. Still only one winner there.
Judges out in a blazer glory
WIMBLEDON dole office will be busier than usual in July when queues of redundant line judges start signing on.
The All England Club’s switch over to automated, eagle-eyed, infallible technology to spot whether a ball is in or out means it’s curtains for around 300 of them.
APWimbledon say they are behind the times when it comes to moving over to AI instead of actual humans to make the big calls and stress they will do their best to find the officials alternative employment.
Even so, look out next summer for a Centre Court full of second-hand £900 Ralph Lauren official Wimbo blazers being offered for sale on Vinted.
Pore decision
I’M all for revolting fans — but the daftest demo must go to the Spanish couple who got themselves in bother in Singapore for having a pop at Valencia owner Peter Lim by holding up a ‘Lim Go Home’ banner outside his house. Er . . .
No-one else up to scratch
IT’S farewell to Rafa Nadal, the man who made wedgie-wiggling a sport in its own right.
The Spaniard retires next month after 22 Slam wins.
When we’re no longer able to focus on his bizarre habit of sticking his fingers into his backside and his nose-pulling and ear-scratching routine, we’ll just have to watch the tennis. Grim.
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