Chelsea’s squad building is really what’s under scrutiny at the moment. Two years of vast expenditure and unprecedented chaos have changed a lot at the club – and there’s so much still to go, with more than 40 first team players registered at the moment.
Inevitably this is what the media want to know about, but in his opening Premier League press conference of the season, Enzo Maresca shut down some major questions by pointing out that he is just the coach, not the sporting director.
When asked about which players would be departing, he pointed towards the guys above him, Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley:
“This question is for Paul and Laurence. They are trying to find solutions for these type of players. I am not the guy in charge of finding solutions for young players, otherwise they have to pay me double!” the new coach joked.
Someone has to put their head above the parapet
We sympathise with Maresca – he’s right, he’s not the one making these decisions, so why should he be the one put up to answer questions about it?
But until the club do start sending Stewart and Winstanley out there to face questions about their actions, Maresca is the closest we will get. We dearly wish that the journalist who was shot down in his attempt to get answers had pointed this out. It’s so frustrating to be constantly fobbed off like this when the club you love is at stake.
This isn’t a problem unique to Chelsea at all – managers are always used as the media shield for those above them in England. But the further teams move to a continent model in terms of organisation, the more farcical it becomes that the media get no access to those making the bigger picture decisions.
