Inside Chelsea's five-year plan as Enzo Maresca makes 'important' Boehly-Clearlake target clear
Enzo Maresca has played down Chelsea's objective of finishing in the Premier League's top four after outlining the club's vision for success.
The 44-year-old, who arrived from Leicester City in the summer to succeed Mauricio Pochettino, has made a positive start in the dugout as Chelsea head coach.
Maresca has Chelsea currently in fifth position in the league, while the Blues are two wins from two in the Conference League, League Phase, and in the Carabao Cup fourth round, which sees them face Newcastle United on Wednesday night.
A mindset of taking every game as it comes, rather than looking too far ahead, has been instilled into the players by Maresca, who has endeared himself to the players, fans, board and staff for his approach, including his honesty and transparency.
The mood is positive and Chelsea will hope to have a successful first year under the Italian, with the firm expectation from supporters to win the Conference League and qualify for next season's Champions League.
Former head coach, Pochettino always downplayed the expectations of the group and Maresca is no different. He insists no talk of top four has ever been mentioned by the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership.
Maresca wants to continue as Chelsea are and wait to see where they are when the season concludes in May.
"I already said that the club never mentioned to me about top four," Maresca said. "Since I met the club for the first time, they always mentioned to me that the target, the idea, was to build something important for the next four or five years.
"For sure, we work every day to reach something important and we are going to try until the end to do our best. Pressure on the players? I don't think so, to be honest.
"If you go game by game, you can also see yourself and where you are at that moment and I think this can help a lot, because if you start to think about top four or top six, then you are already thinking about May or June and for me, that's too far and it's the same for the players.
"We are where we are. We are going to continue to try and improve things and then in the end, we will see."
