Maresca admits Chelsea midfielder should have left in the summer

Enzo Maresca has admitted that he wanted one of his young midfielders to leave Chelsea this summer, having been forced to reintegrate him to his squad after failing to secure a transfer away from Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea were aggressive in trying to shrink their squad size during the summer, with Maresca forcing the likes of Raheem Sterling, Armando Broja and Trevoh Chalobah to train away from the first team in order to force an exit from the club.

While Chelsea were able to eventually dispose of most of their ‘bomb squad’, Carney Chukwuemeka was one player who was unable to agree a transfer away despite reported interest from the likes of Barcelona and Milan.

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The 20-year-old has since returned to the first team, although he has yet to feature in the Premier League after playing his first 14 minutes of the season against Barrow in the Carabao Cup, with Maresca admitting he would have preferred Chukwuemeka to have left for more game time.

Maresca said: “I will say exactly the same thing I have said many times: Carney is a very good player, but for the amount of players we have, we decided at the beginning of the season it is probably better to leave and go somewhere, prove himself and playing 30 or 35 games than being here and play less games. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

“He is our player. He had some minutes the other day, today he was not involved. Hopefully, we can give him more minutes.”

© IMAGO – Carney Chukwuemeka has struggled with injury in recent times.

How injury destabilised Chukwuemeka at Chelsea

Chukwuemeka arrived at Chelsea with a glowing reputation as a youth player for Aston Villa, prompting the Blues to shell out €18 million for the then 18-year-old in 2022.

His debut year at Chelsea saw Chukwuemeka make a handful of appearances but the England under-20 international was set to press on in his second season, having started the opening two games of the 2023/24 campaign.

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However, Chukwuemeka suffered a knee injury in the same game he scored his first ever Premier League goal, leading to a four-month spell on the sidelines that stalled his progress.

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The Austrian-born youngster struggled with fitness for the rest of the campaign, only making seven more league appearances before Maresca’s arrival.

Chukwuemeka is still highly-rated by Chelsea but the club are aware he needs gametime to rebuild his fitness and continue his development – something he may struggle to do under Maresca this season.