Chelsea already lining up January transfers as Enzo Maresca lifts the lid

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has hinted at further spending in the January transfer window, despite the club’s owners already splashing out over £1billion on players in the past two years.

Maresca, who has multiple players in each position and sometimes has up to 15 training away from the main squad, believes there is still room for improvement.

He said: “The target after last summer is to do less things but be more specific. This is the target for January and next summer. Less things but more specific.

Despite having a strong squad, Maresca acknowledges that clubs like Manchester City and Arsenal are currently ahead.

The Blues boss added: “We have a very good squad and hopefully with progress and improving we can be slowly slowly close to them. But I think it’s quite clear Arsenal and City are ahead of the rest.

“But it’s quite clear, this is because one is nine years with the same manager and one is five years with the same manager. The rest of the clubs, it’s a short time.”

Maresca’s wealth of talent has allowed him to make game-changing substitutions, as seen in Chelsea’s victory over Bournemouth where Jason Sancho and Christopher Nkunku came off the bench to secure the win.

Maresca explained his tactical approach, saying: “The only intention when we make some changes is to try to improve what we see first half, or after one hour or after 70.

“In this moment, what do we need? We need to go in the same way or we need to probably change these kind of things.

“At the end, the important thing is it’s not possible to play with all Cole Palmer, Joao Felix, Christopher, Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto.

“It’s not possible to play with all of them in the first XI. The important thing is, the ones that start, they try to do well. And the ones that go on, they try to improve or try to continue in the same way. It’s the only way to try to win games.

“It’s important that all of them go inside with the same desire because they know I expect this from them – one minute or 95 minutes.”