By our reporter 31.3.2026
Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella wished that former coach Enzo Maresca stayed, because the club need stability just like their London rivals Arsenal.
In January Chelsea pushed out Maresca who won them the Club World Cup and brought in Liam Rosenior who has so far failed to revive the fortunes of the club.
Speaking while on international duty with Spain Cucurella said: “Liam is a very good person and has been great at handling the group, the characters.
“He likes to stay close to us and his football ideas are good, but we don’t have the time to train them.
“We train on (playing in) competitive games, because we play every three days and that leaves you with no time to work on the training ground. In this context, it is normal that your plans sometimes don’t work out, and then we go through difficult moments.
“With Enzo Maresca in charge, we were more stable, because we worked together for 18 months. If you look at our first pre-season with him (Chelsea won only once in six warm-up friendlies, losing three), there were doubts. You need a process for every player to understand what we need to do. In our last months with Maresca, we played almost by heart. If we changed the system, we knew what we had to do. You need that time.
“Look at Arsenal now, who are fighting for every trophy. They’ve been with (Mikel) Arteta for almost seven years and they have not won much. But that trust in the project gives rewards.”
“The moment Maresca left, it had a big impact on us. These are decisions taken by the club. If you asked me, I would not have made this decision.
“The instability around the club comes from this, in a nutshell. We had a caretaker (former under-21s coach Calum McFarlane) first, then a new manager, with new ideas and no time to work on them. It is what it is.”