Enzo Maresca reluctant to admit that adding Andrey Santos would help Chelsea’s squad | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca’s press conference previewing today’s game against Fulham had a lot of interesting moments, particularly because it took place directly after the team’s defeat to Legia Warsaw in the Conference League.

That meant a lot of tension, and a lot of negativity in the air. But there was also some more positive content, looking forward to the potential addition of Andrey Santos in the summer after his spectacularly successful loan at our sister club Strasbourg concludes.

It was put to Maresca that resting midfielders like Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez wouldn’t lead to such shocking results if his squad had more depth than an injured Romeo Lavia. He didn’t exactly grab the chance to agree with the statement:

“We know that Andrey is doing well. But in this moment, we are just focused about how we finish this season. And then when we finish this season, we’re going to start to think about next season.”

Chelsea still reluctant to confirm anything about Andrey Santos

Andrey Santos celebrates a cup goal. (Photo by Francois Nascimbeni/AFP via Getty Images)

It’s very strange how reluctant anyone at the club seems to be to confirm that Santos is going to be part of the squad next season. What more does he have to do on loan to earn some sort of gentle promise he will be in the first team picture next year?

We really hope this doesn’t indicate the crazy rumour about potentially selling him have more truth to them than we’d expect.

Maresca even came back to the topic later in the presser, where he insisted that his focus was on the 8 games left in the season, not thinking about how we can get better in the summer:

“Yeah, it’s the same about Andrey Santos. In this moment, I’m not thinking at all about next year or the players that can be here next year. I’m just thinking how we can get the best from them to finish the season very strong.”