The Athletic: Cucurella is the second member of this Chelsea squad’s leadership group to publicly lament Maresca’s departure. He has also questioned the club’s recruitment policy. Concerns raised from within are much harder to dismiss. How will Chelsea respond?
by Kygoche
35 Comments
Blue Co. response? link us to every high potential player on EAFC
Chelsea will sell him. The sub will be either celebrating his sale, or angry he was sold. And will also defend Blue Co’s decision to fire Maresca
– Chelsea’s owners and sporting leadership have grown accustomed to their decisions and strategy being questioned, criticised or even mocked by those outside the club
– But concerns raised from within are much harder to dismiss.
– becoming the second member of the squad’s leadership group to publicly lament the Italian’s departure after vice-captain Enzo Fernandez
– We have a good core of players. The foundations are there. But to fight for major trophies such as the Premier League or the Champions League, you need more
– Signing young players only might complicate achieving those goals. Against PSG, we lacked players that had gone through situations like that.
– His words will resonate with many supporters and outside observers who have been banging the same drum for much of the last three years
– Chelsea have always insisted they are open to signing the right veterans on the right terms, and they held interest in acquiring Virgil van Dijk as a free agent last summer if he had opted not to renew with Liverpool.
– But actions speak louder than words, and in the fourth season of the BlueCo project, Chelsea’s squad still has by some distance the youngest average age in the Premier League (23.5)
– It is clear that Maresca’s mid-season departure was hard for many in the Chelsea dressing room to process
– Pedro Neto and Malo Gusto are two others who have gone on record to state their shock in recent months
They’ll shave his head live
This is scary considering I have no faith in BlueCo replacing either Enzo or Cucu if they leave. Not only that, but it could set a precedent where it will be more & more difficult to attract high-end talent, young or not. Why would any quality player want to join this shitshow? Especially if we miss CL
Briefs from Kaveh and Gill later
“Chelsea are not concerned with player complaints, they fully believe in their project”
Chelsea board’s response:
We have a LB for sale.
You can only hope this is just the start of players voicing their contempt for these clown owners.
Also idk what’s going on here lately if there are actual Clearlake bots trying to steer a narrative in here or it’s just a sudden jump in naively optimistic fans but the discussion threads the past week almost feel astroturfed.
BlueCo’s response? Probably to buy another 20 year old winger.
The sky guy Kaveh thinks they might tweak the strategy which would be a sensible thing
They won’t care as they can’t care any less what their assets “think”. Our club is truly dead with Blue co in charge
Are there actual fans who are blaming enzo and cucurella ? I thought pretty much the whole chelsea base was aligned like this and only some idiots on reddit were of the “blue co in”, “rosenior is our messiah” mentality…
Wonder what all the bots that claimed Maresca wasn’t good enough and the players were turning against him have to say now? Sacking him to hire Liam is a criminal offense and destroyed all the progress that was being made. If people still cannot see that then I don’t know what to say to them
By finishing 7th and buying another teenager
I think it’s fair to say that while many of us can share our sympathies and agree with Cucu and Enzo that sacking Maresca was a mistake…
One of the squad’s senior members and the assistant captain openly criticizing club leadership while also insinuating their desire to leave is embarrassing for both the club AND the player. Very reminiscent of the Lukaku fiasco and I remember how this sub vilified him.
Palmer probably has a stronger voice internally than either of them and he has shut down every Man United rumor. Maybe he really will go to United this summer but why drive a wedge between himself and his club so long as he’s here.
He’s gone in the summer.
If they can sell for a profit they are all gone. It’s our model now, make a profit.
This makes me love Cucurella even more. He spoke the truth, and nothing else.
To be fair Marescas departure was hardly planned thing and even Blueco must have had headache from that and even Roseniors signing came much sooner then they wanted.
As far as recruitment policy goes, right before that first game against psg it kind of sort of … not worked … but floated? i guess, could be the term … at that game it backfired misserably and those two weeks after that it spiraled into madness.
I am one of those ppl that tries to understand and have open mind towards it but yeah … i think we reached point where some rethinking is needed, we are dangerously close to make huge step back if it will cascade into some key players leaving. And i think that, not because its a bad thing that specific player leaves but because what it represents. Players needs to have faith in it in order to stay there for years and wait for some players to became what we envisioned them they will be. If cucus feeling is feeling of majority of our squad … thats bad. like rly rly rly bad.
I find it interesting that this comes out shortly after enzos comments. And sky sports posted yesterday a youtube video about possible Palmer exit in the summer.
I hope our owners and board would take this seriously and get the right players to streghten the team. We cant afford to lose our “core” now and star all over again.
Altough i dont have strong belive for our owners and board will do it.
It’s really refreshing to see the players having a go at the management. Highly doubt that the piece of shit eghbali gonna change the recruitment strategy but one can hope.
Starting to not give af anymore. This isn’t the club I fell in love with decades ago.. The clowns who run it think of it as nothing more than an asset and all that mixed with how shit VAR football has become has killed my joy for the game as a whole.
All feels bad when we’re doing poorly.
Media has to sell story everyday.
Lol all the comments about selling for profit when there aren’t any actual examples of starters being sold. Fuck blueco but you all just created your own reality lol
This is a real pinch point for our board leading into summer. It’s either they:
1) Finally humble themselves & change the model to bring some experience in (if they do this, there might just be a small light at the end of the tunnel)
2) Sell the likes of Enzo, Cucu etc & bring in younger replacements (if they do this, then we better get used to watching the Europa League / Conference League, it’s officially Brighton 2.0, cashcow edition)
3) Ignore everybody, keep the pissed off players & still keep signing young players (if they do this, we really might have the worst owners in football, expect Tottenham level declines)
We need established players or at least players approaching their peak to balance the squad. No club has won anything significant without a veteran core alongside the youth. We should look at Schlotterbeck or Bastoni this summer as well as a top notch GK
They’re bringing Barco next season. With Hato, Barco and Cucurella one has to go. Well, now you know who’s leaving.
First Enzo now Cucu. I don’t blame these players at all for their reactions. I respect Caicedo for wanting to stay and become a legend
Knowing the egotistical owner we will sell him
They will be sold, we will crib or forget and move on. And Blue co will continue to run this club to the ground
This sub is special. Majority have a hate boner on blueco and rightfully so, but when a manager/players spoke out against blueco suddenly this sub goes “gEt oUt oF mY cLuB yOu tRaiTor!”.
Marc Cucurella: the voice of the people.
One of the most likable players in our current squad. He’s chosen his moment well.
There’s only one way that Clownlake should respond to this. But they won’t do that. They will sell the ‘problems’ and stick to their idiocy because their egos can’t take the fact that they were wrong.
Maresca did say the truth will come out over time but as things stand it’s still unclear if he was fired or walked away.
But what’s most concerning is that the leaders all feel less committed to the project. I can understand wanting to go with Liam as the long term hire so you can establish a consistent playing identity and recruit with more in alignment but Liam was always going to be expected to deliver substance now.
Has there been an Athletic piece released that explained Maresca’s departure? I’ve heard stories he was frustrated, he was flirting with joining Juve and City, he was not willing to play the new signings, in-fighting with medical staff, then he randomly came out to the presser months ago saying he felt no support from the club for the first time. In the end it was mutual consent which is unclear, but some say he walked others say he was fired.