Ex-England player, Paul Merson has come out to blast Enzo Maresca for benching key players in Chelsea’s goalless draw against Brentford. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.
According to him, he couldn’t believe the pathetic team Enzo Maresca put out at Brentford because he did not understand the rationale behind resting players for the Europa Conference League
Merson added that getting into the UCL has to be the be all and end all for the Blues this season, so nothing else must serve as a distraction.
His words, “I couldn’t believe the team Enzo Maresca put out at Brentford. When that team came out, I was flabbergasted. It was pathetic. Chelsea have won the Champions League. This is the Europa Conference League – and he’s resting players for it? Getting into the Champions League has to be the be all and end all. They have to be in it. If they come sixth in the Premier League and win the Europa Conference League, it would be a shocker. A shocker.
This is Legia Warsaw, no disrespect to them but they won’t beat Chelsea over two legs. You have to beat Brentford. If they had won that game, then beat Ipswich at the weekend, they would have Champions League football in their hands with six games to go. And then look at what happened when those subs like Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson came on. They dominated Brentford. But now, they are right up against it. Chelsea might have to finish ahead of Manchester City to qualify for the Champions League, in an era when every team that finished ahead of City won the Premier League.
Maresca won’t win me over until the end of May. People tell me that Chelsea are doing well, but they’ve got one of the biggest squads in the world and they aren’t even close to winning the Premier League. Man City and Arsenal have dominated the Premier League the last two years and Chelsea are a million points off the title in the year they drop off. And these players are going to be together for the next six or seven years because of their contracts.
It’s madness, absolutely madness. Six big-money players are currently out on loan because they aren’t playing so it might be an absolute disaster if they do not get Champions League football next season. And winning the Conference League? Come on. There are two or three teams in this competition that I’ve never even heard of. I went to Stamford Bridge and watched them play FC Noah!”
WOW.
Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London. Founded in 1905, they play their home games at Stamford Bridge.
The club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football. They won their first major honour, the League championship, in 1955. The club won the FA Cup for the first time in 1970, their first European honour, the Cup Winners’ Cup, in 1971, and became the third English club to win the Club World Cup in 2022.
On 7 May 2022, Chelsea confirmed that terms have been agreed for a new ownership group, led by Todd Boehly, Clearlake Capital, Mark Walter and Hansjörg Wyss, to acquire the club. The group was later known as BlueCo.
The UK government approved the £4.25bn takeover, ending Abramovich’s 19-year ownership of the club. Bruce Buck, who served as chairman since 2003, was replaced by Boehly, while long-serving club director and de facto sporting director Marina Granovskaia left, as did Petr Čech from the role of technical and performance advisor.
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