New signing arrives at Stamford Bridge for head-start – plus the main Maresca mystery | OneFootball

Next week is the official start of Chelsea’s preseason, but some players are already back at Cobham doing some early fitness work.

Nizaar Kinsella of the BBC noted that our first signing of the summer was among the players spotted at the training ground:

“Defender Tosin Adarabioyo was among the players to arrive back a week early for pre-season training at Chelsea,” he wrote.

“The formal start date is 8 July but the free transfer signing from Fulham was with the likes of Ben Chilwell and Trevoh Chalobah at the club’s Cobham training base.”

Of course the players still at the Euros and the Copa America still won’t be back for weeks, meaning there’s going to be a pretty vast gap in preparation between the guys who are already out there getting work in and those who haven’t even started their holidays yet.

Mauricio Pochettino and Enzo Maresca in a montage.

A strange contrast to last year

Kinsella’s piece also has some notes about Enzo Maresca:

“New boss Enzo Maresca also started work on Monday but the sessions are believed to be informal fitness work as he settles into the new job.”

Maresca has already been working at Cobham for some time, without any players, and only now will he actually head out to the training pitch and get his tracksuit on.

So far, we’ve been rather puzzled by the total lack of media push from Chelsea with regards to the new coach. There have been no big interviews, no short video documentaries about his meteoric rise or his passion for his new job. It’s a stark contrast to a year ago, when Mauricio Pochettino content was all over the timeline.

Is this a deliberate new approach? It’s a curious one. Either way, now he’s actually working with his new players on the training pitch, we expect more content to come.