As ever, we’ve been looking forward to this week’s Chelsea Confidential from Kieran Gill in the Daily Mail.
It always has some interesting exclusive snippets, and this week is no exception. With the international break in full force, the biggest news in the Chelsea world this week has been the transfers of Geovany Quenda and Dario Essugo from Sporting CP.
While Essugo will arrive this summer for a modest €22m fee, Quenda is still just 17 and won’t arrive until next summer. He’s the one with serious, world class potential, and the one who was in most demand. According to Gill, Maresca played his part in securing the youngster’s signature on a £40m move that will happen next summer:
“Sources in the camp of Geovany Quenda say Maresca spoke personally with the 17-year-old winger of Sporting CP before that £40million deal was revealed last week,” he wrote.
“Maresca gave Quenda a message of confidence over the course of their conversation, telling him to keep evolving, learning and improving. He added that he is trusted as someone perfect for the Chelsea project and that he is looking forward to working with him in the future.”
A good sign for Maresca – but no guarantee of his safety
As Gill points out, this bodes well for Maresca. The club wouldn’t be assigning him this sort of job if they weren’t convinced he was going to be around to manage the kid in 2026.
Then again, we’re old enough to remember Mauricio Pochettino showing Kendry Paez around Cobham little over a year ago, and now the two are never going to cross over. There’s no guarantee of anything if results totally collapse at some point in the next year, but it certainly seems that Maresca has given his bosses what they want so far, at least.
