Chelsea held “very positive” transfer talks with the representatives of a top transfer target, just before their disappointing loss to Legia Warsaw in the Europa Conference League on Thursday.
Enzo Maresca blames rotation as Chelsea lose 2-1 to Legia Warsaw
The Premier League heavyweights are in the Conference League semi-finals after their aggregate win over Legia, but they did it in unconvincing fashion after their tepid loss at home to the European minnows last night.
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Goals from Tomas Pekhart and Steve Kapuadi cancelled out Marc Cucurella’s equaliser to hand the Poles a deserved win at Stamford Bridge, leading to small sections of boos around the stadium from Chelsea’s home crowd.
Manager Enzo Maresca has come under fire recently, leading Chelsea to just five league wins from their last 16, and he admitted in a post-match press conference that heavy rotation played a role during a dissatisfying performance from his side.
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“First of all, yeah, we are for sure not happy with the defeat,” said Maresca about Chelsea’s defeat to Legia.
“Probably the first leg, 0-3, probably we try to manage the result a little bit, rotate, make rotations with the players, try to avoid injury, because we have an important game also Sunday. So, as I said, for sure not happy with the result.
“We are in the semi-final, but at the same time, we were probably trying to manage a little bit the first leg, the result, we are there. But overall, the good thing is that we can rotate players, we don’t have an injury, that for us was the main target, because during the season we had many injuries, an important moment, and because it’s an important moment now, the last part of the season, the good news was that we don’t have injury.”
After Maresca highlighted the silver lining of no new injured Chelsea players, there has been more good news off the field, according to reliable journalist Simon Phillips.
Chelsea hold "very positive" Thursday talks with Dean Huijsen
It concerns Bournemouth defender and top transfer target Dean Huijsen, who is a wanted man across the Premier League after a very impressive season on the south coast under Andoni Iraola.
News of his £50 million release clause has piqued interest throughout England and further abroad, with Vincent Kompany also reportedly pushing Bayern Munich to sign Huijsen (Football Insider).
Writing via his Substack, Phillips has shared a fresh update on Maresca’s pursuit of the 20-year-old, stating that Chelsea held “very positive” talks with Huijsen’s camp on Thursday, and just before their defeat to Legia.
Following these discussions, Chelsea believe their chances of striking a deal for the “sensational” Spain international have increased.
“Chelsea have held new talks with the agents of Huijsen today, and talks have been described by sources as being very positive,” wrote the reporter.
“We have heard that the player’s father is very involved in the dealings as the main part of his entourage and he is asking for a fairly high agent fee, which we know Chelsea do not mind paying if other parts of the deal and fees can be reduced.
“Chelsea are now feeling more confident that they can land their man after talks today, mainly due to the fact that they are promising him game time and at the moment Liverpool are not able to do that with Virgil van Dijk just signing a new contract.”
Phillips’ source is also quoted as saying that Chelsea are “going all in” for Huijsen, so this comes as a very promising update on one of Europe’s most exciting young centre-backs.