Marcel Desailly exclusive interview: Chelsea are the future as young generation 'will surely deliver' | OneFootball

Former Blues captain believes this season is too early for a Premier League title challenge

Marcel Desailly admits being more than a little sceptical of what might be achievable when Enzo Maresca took over as manager of a very young Chelsea side last summer.

The Blues, who host Sunderland today, achieved Champions League football for themselves, though, as well as winning the Conference League and Club World Cup.

“The Premier League is super difficult,” he says in an interview with Standard Sport. “You need to have experienced players in your squad, because you have to play at some grounds that are difficult. Your squad has to be ready for the battle.

“I believe that the intensity of the Premier League will not allow them to have the required consistency to be able to win. Look what happened to Liverpool at home against Manchester United. Liverpool are tactically stable, won the league, and then got hammered by United. So it is difficult to keep that consistency and gain enough points.

“So I think Chelsea are still building up and surely you need to have that super player — a famous player with good stats to be able to be that addition that Chelsea is looking for, to eventually win that Premier League title. Not the Club World Cup, not the Conference League, the Premier League. It is something different.

“They had a good season last season. But I'm not sure they are ready to be able to compete to win the Premier League.”

Enzo Maresca delivered two trophies in his first season as Chelsea head coach

Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Chelsea will be hoping to make it five wins on the bounce when the Black Cats arrive at Stamford Bridge this afternoon, with confidence at Cobham sky-high after the 5-1 battering of Ajax in midweek when Maresca’s young stars came to the fore.

Desailly, a World Cup winner with France in 1998, played with countless talented youngsters just breaking through during his six years at Chelsea, and he is confident their recruitment strategy today of trusting youth will pay dividends.

“Three years ago, they started to buy players with that idea of creating the Chelsea of the future. So they brought [Moises] Caicedo, [Cole] Palmer and many more. When they were buying players like Caicedo, nobody really understood what Chelsea was doing.

“They bought the player for around double his value at the time. And you look over the years, now Caicedo might have the value that they bought him for two years ago.

“So they have that long-term project. It’s the same as the way they are signing players on long-term contracts, to keep them into the system and to be able financially to keep them into the system over the success.”

Three years ago, they started to buy players with that idea of creating the Chelsea of the future

Marcel Desailly

Desailly, who was speaking in association with OLBG, is optimistic for the future of the club he represented 222 times as a swashbuckling centre-back, but he still sees gaps in their squad.

“They still have to build up some leadership and consistency other than Palmer,” he explains. “I still believe that they need that experienced striker to be able to bring the team to another level.

“But, tactically, Maresca has been magnificent. You can see that his squad understand his tactics, the way they put the pressure on the three midfielders of Paris Saint-Germain.

“I was in New York at that time for that match, and it was magnificent to watch. So Chelsea is the future. I'm not sure for this season, but I believe that the young generation is growing and will surely deliver something strong next season.”