Top four not compulsory in first season, says new Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca says the club’s owners have not made Champions League qualification a requirement in his first season in charge, instead prioritising longer-term success as they seek a return on their £1.2billion investment in the squad.

The Italian, who replaced Mauricio Pochettino in June to become the third permanent appointment in two years since Todd Boehly’s Clearlake Capital consortium bought the club, begins his tenure against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on Sunday looking to improve on last season’s sixth-place finish.

A difficult campaign ultimately finished on a high as the team racked up five straight league wins to earn a place in this season’s Europa Conference League, but it was not enough to keep Pochettino in his job, the Argentinian leaving by mutual consent days later having failed to mount a challenge for the top four.

This will be the second consecutive season that Chelsea have not played in Europe’s top club competition, having previously missed out just twice in 20 years. The team finished 12th in 2022/23 and failed to qualify for Europe entirely.

Yes, despite the huge outlay on recruitment, which has included more than £160million spent this summer on nine signings, Maresca insisted his job does not depend on leading the team immediately back into Europe’s elite.

“The vision that I have is a club that is looking for balance,” he said. “When I met the club, they mentioned many times that they were looking for balance, looking to build something important for the next five or 10 years.

“What I can say is that nobody from the club asked me for the Champions League this year. Nobody said that we need to finish in the (top) four.

“What they said to me is that we need to go step by step, arrive and compete with that. For sure, if you ask me my dream it is to compete with the teams that at this moment are dominating English football. This is my dream.

“But, at the same time, we know that to close that gap is not automatic. It is a matter that you need to train and to work. The only thing I can say is that no one from the club has (said) to me that this season we have to finish in the (top) four, otherwise we fail.”

After City, the team will make their debut in the Conference League on Thursday when they face Swiss side Servette at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of the play-off round.

It will be a far cry from three years ago when the side managed by Thomas Tuchel defeated Pep Guardiola’s team in Porto to lift the Champions League trophy for the second time in nine years.

Maresca made it clear that his immediate aims are less lofty as he sets out to get the club back on track.

“(The goal) is just to have the feeling that we are going in the right direction,” he said. “I think this is a very good target.

“The owner, the sporting directors, the manager, the players all have the same idea that we are going in the right direction.

“Okay guys, the direction is good. If it’s not now (that we are successful), then it will be one month, two months, one year. But we are going to be very close, very soon.”