One Chelsea summer signing ‘did not speak to’ Maresca before joining as his ‘greatest gripe’ revealed | OneFootball

According to reports, head coach Enzo Maresca ‘did not speak to’ one of Chelsea’s summer signings before a £40m deal was finalised.

On Thursday morning, it was announced that Chelsea have parted company with Maresca after a string of poor results and their deteriorated relationship made his position untenable.

Maresca was coming under increasing pressure as Chelsea have only won one of their last seven Premier League games, but he has also fought back against the board.

The head coach publicly hit out at club chiefs over an alleged lack of support, while it has also emerged that he could join Manchester City to replace Pep Guardiola.

These factors made Maresca’s exit inevitable and several reports have since provided details on how his relationship with Chelsea fell apart.

A detailed report from The Daily Mail has confirmed that ‘coaching the players provided to him was his primary remit, rather than scouting and signing targets personally’.

Also, it is noted that he ‘did not speak to’ Alejandro Garnacho before the former Manchester United star completed his £40m move to Stamford Bridge in the summer.

Garnacho has been one of Chelsea’s standout performers this season and it is also noted that the signing was ‘put to Maresca for his opinion’, while he ‘agreed he was a worthwhile signing’.

So, Maresca did not seem to have a big issue with transfers, but the report claims his ‘greatest gripe’ centred around his “worst 48 hours” at the club admission.

Regarding this statement, the report explained: ‘Maresca was not aiming those words at the co-owner Behdad Eghbali, or the co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, or the recruitment specialists such as Joe Shields and Sam Jewell, all of whom regularly visit the Chelsea changing room after matches, whether they win, draw or lose. They were to do with the medical advice he was receiving for players returning from injury.

‘Before every game, Maresca would have a briefing in which he was told how many minutes certain individuals could manage. He might be advised Reece James could handle 45 minutes maximum, for example. It would then be up to him if he used his captain for the first or second half.

‘However, Daily Mail Sport has been told that Maresca did not always heed that advice and, potentially at the risk of re-injury, there were times when he used players for longer than the medical department would have liked. That did not go down well internally.’