It’s one of those immutable rules of football that managers always get linked with players from their former club, and it’s already happening to Enzo Maresca at Chelsea, just days after he was appointed as the club’s new head coach.
It’s quite the leap up from Leicester in the Championship to Chelsea, which perhaps makes it harder than normal to think of realistic targets that the new man could be looking for at his old club, but Caught Offside are going with the angle that he likes midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
The 25 year old came through the Leicester ranks and played semi regularly with his team in the Premier League. It was last season where he became a key player however, taking advantage of the departure of several senior stars to become a regular for Maresca in the Championship as Leicester surged to the title.
A box to box player full of energy, one can see him replacing Conor Gallagher as a number 8 in a 433.
This piece claims that Leicester would want £40m him, and Chelsea would likely get a similar amount for Gallagher – so it’s not a dream trade given they’re more or less the same age and Gallagher appears to be the better player. But with his contract running down and a sale looming, it may be one the club sanction.
The alternatives
Gallagher leaving would create space in midfield, but then again with Cesare Casadei potentially sticking around this season, plus Romeo Lavia and Lesley Ugochukwu coming back from injury, Chelsea may not replace Gallagher at all. KHD is certainly an option they will keep in mind, but unless Maresca considers him totally essential to how he wants to play (and frankly, we feel like we’ve already got players who can do similar things) it doesn’t feel too likely we push too hard on this one.
