First and foremost, Enzo Maresca who is entering Stamford Bridge will have a number of issues to tackle: the first and crucial one is an immediate overhauling of the Chelsea team prior to the 2024/25 season.
One of the critical acquisition under this transformation is Fulham defender Tosin Adarabioyo, who is expected to be the backline enforcer for Chelsea after the exit of Thiago Silva to Fluminense, ending his four-year stint with the west London giants.
Silva’s absence arguably poses a major problem which Maresca believes that the 26-year-old Adarabioyo will ideally be able to cover for.
However, in another potential one, Pedro Lima, a 17-year-old right-back whom many believed would be joining Chelsea, went to Wolves as fans were left rather bewildered.
However, further additions to the list include Crystal Palace’s talented and energetic winger by the name of Michael Olise whom Chelsea has been in talks with for almost a year now.
The French youngster is said to be interested in joining the Blue’s team, although the bid could go beyond £60 million, which is almost twice the bid made in the summer that failed to materialise as Olise agreed a new deal with the Eagles.
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To off-set these huge outlays, Chelsea’s boss is expecting hefty sales as he prepares his team for the big confrontations.
There are some uncertainties over the future of some major talents like Trevoh Chalobah, Armando Broja, and Conor Gallagher, all allegedly set to leave the club.
Some other players that may be given the boot include goalkeepers Robert Sanchez and Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Sanchez signed for Chelsea from Brighton only to suffer a nightmare season due to knee problems whilst Petrovic established himself as the second-choice goalkeeper at the Bridge.
Petrovic put in some of his best showing that effectively demoted Sanchez to just two appearances in the second half of the season, giving him an escape clause to quit his seven-year contract had a good offer comes his way.
With Maresca set to ascend to the manager’s chair in July, all eyes shall be on achieving defensive resilience coupled with adding youthful impetus to the team’s attack.
As Maresca is set to assume the leadership in July, all the attention is now on strengthening the Chelsea defense while promoting the young talents in the attack.
The manager will lay down the major aspects of his management style right from the start of his reign, but the two tasks that will be facing him the most would be to assimilate new players into the team while selling off deadwoods.
The summer of change is coming to Chelsea after period of decline and the club will have everything to change under Maresca and try to become the team that was at top of English football again.
