Maresca Praises Players’ Growth

The youngest Premier League team in the history of the competition delivered when it mattered and left Enzo Maresca a very proud head coach indeed.

The average age of our starting XI in the league this season was just 24 years and 36 days. That is the youngest ever by a team in a single campaign.

Much has been made of the youthfulness of Chelsea’s squad, particularly from the outside, but at the crunch point in this campaign, five wins out of the last six speaks volumes. That includes victories over Liverpool and Manchester United, and away to Fulham and Nottingham Forest.

Speaking after beating Forest at the City Ground, Maresca emphasised the journey his team have been on.

‘I’m very proud of the players,’ said Maresca.

‘I feel especially proud of their improvement, of the way they grew through the season. I feel especially proud of that because they are a fantastic group, a fantastic squad.

‘They are good boys, they work hard, they try to help each other. Most of the time they had to deal with noise from outside saying they were not good enough, they were too young, we didn’t have leaders, this kind of thing. But at the end it all comes from results.

‘I didn’t have any doubt about the players. Any doubts were from outside. The players deserved that victory and I’ve said many times the effort they have put in is fantastic.’

With one objective at the climax of this season achieved, Maresca has now set his sights on truly making it a campaign to remember. He knows how much his squad would benefit from lifting a first trophy together.

‘We were in four competitions at the beginning of the season. We have finished in the Champions League. We went out of the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup, but overall I think we can say it has been a very good season.

‘I said before, for me it was already a good season, but it could become very good if we were able to get the Champions League, and hopefully now we can win the Conference League on Wednesday.

Chelseafc.com