Enzo Maresca has shed light on a large meeting with Chelsea staff members at Cobham “more than a month ago” to ask them to push until the end of the season and help qualify for the Champions League.
In previous press conferences, the Blues‘ head coach has caused some confusion with comments regarding the side’s targets for the season. However, Maresca made it perfectly clear on Friday morning that the goal for Chelsea this term is to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Over a month ago, there was a meeting called by Maresca at Chelsea’s training base – taking place in the canteen – in Cobham, where over 100 people were in attendance, including the kitchen staff, those in charge of preparing the kit and groundsmen. In said meeting, the Italian asked staff members to keep pushing in order to help the Blues achieve their targets this season.
“I think more than one month ago I prepared a meeting with all the people inside the building, the kitchen staff, groundsmen, kit men, everyone inside the building,” Maresca told reporters on Friday. “I asked them to push until the end because our target was to bring this club back into the Champions League. So I did this a month ago.
“But as I said, if you say something when you win, you look humble. When you say the same thing when you are not winning, you look like you lack ambition. But my ambition since I joined this club has been always the same, to bring this club where this club deserves to be.
“It’s the reason why I joined this club because I saw the same desire from the owners and the sports directors, otherwise there was no sense to join this club. Because this club cannot just survive, it’s a club that you need to win games, you need to fight for something important.”
This meeting was Maresca’s idea to try and unite and galvanise those that play a big role within the club, although perhaps those you do not hear about on a regular basis. “Absolutely, yes,” Maresca replied when asked if it was his idea to call the meeting.
“I went to bed, at 11 o’clock, 12 o’clock, and I woke up at 4 o’clock, 5 o’clock,” the head coach continued. “It was when we were third or fourth. I couldn’t sleep more. I started to think. I thought, ‘It could be a good idea in the morning to arrive and pull all the people together in the building and share this message.’
“So I arrived here, 7am, I text Kev [Kevin Campello, head of first-team football operations], ‘Kev, everyone in the canteen at 10 o’clock.’ And they were there, everyone, at 10 o’clock.
“There are many people inside of the building, behind the scenes, who work every day. I will tell you the details. I said to the players in that meeting, ‘When I arrive here in the morning at 7 o’clock, there are people from the kitchen cutting the fruit in the same way. Cut, cut, cut, cut. So there are people behind who you cannot see, who are working every day to help you to reach your target.’ It’s true.
“When I arrive here at 7 o’clock, the kitchen people are preparing breakfasts, and they are doing it all perfectly. The players, they do not see that. I tried to convince them that there are people behind who work hard and we need to push altogether to reach our target.
“I will tell you again because it is something in the last week that I can smell: when you say something when you win, you look humble, and when you say exactly the same message after you don’t win, you look like you lack ambition. I’ve never lacked ambition. If you go into my background as a player, or as a manager, I always tried to push to win.”
Chelsea go into this weekend’s round of fixtures down in sixth-place but with an opportunity to go back ahead of Manchester City, who play Liverpool just less than 24 hours after the Blues take on Aston Villa. The trip to Villa Park has added significance with the side’s recent form – a run that has seen the west Londoners win just twice in nine Premier League games.
