Just a week away from hosting the champions of England, Manchester City, Enzo Maresca’s men warmed up ahead of the season’s opener with the last game of pre-season against the champions of Italy, Internazionale Milan.
The last game of a grueling pre-season that saw the team play a total of 6-games and loads of traveling in between meant Maresca could not field his strongest lineup as the management of player’s minutes are critical at this early stage of varying fitness levels.
Now with pre-season done and dusted, we take a look at some of the fringe players at Chelsea’s disposal and what next for them.
Lesley Ugochukwu :
There has been so much talk of Lesley Ugochuwkwu going out on loan amidst the purchase of KDH and with the perceived insistence of Maresca to deploy the inverted fullback tactic, many already wrote off Lesley and hope for a loan move away from the club.
Dropped from France’s Olympics after Chelsea had given him the ‘go-ahead’ appeared to further worsen what was fast becoming a terrible summer for the former Rennes player.
The 20-year old midfielder didn’t let Henry’s decision as the French U-21 team coach deter him and the decision to quickly join the rest of the squad for the United States tour is beginning to prove fertile as Lesley slowly forces himself into Enzo Maresca’s plans.
Two late goals to savage a draw for the Blues(against Wrexham and Inter) now suggests he might just have scored a point huge enough to keep him in the squad ahead of the official league season.
The driving from deep and physicality make him a valuable asset to possess in a league as grueling as the Premier League and with possibly an European competition still to come in the form of the Uefa Conference League, Maresca would be ‘dumb’ to sanction a loan move away.
My verdict – Keep him as a squad member.
Carney Chukweumeka :
A Talented player no doubt but it is looking increasingly likely that Carney would spend much of this season as a fringe player, again!
Getting minutes right from the start of pre-season with back-to-back starts, Carney looked like he was going to push Maresca’s hands and force him to make a decision on his choices for the attacking 8 positions.
However, since that Celtic game, Carney has barely seen any reasonable minutes.
Sitting out today’s encounter for the duration of 90’ minutes once again, further reinstates how much of a mountain to climb Carney has before himself.
KDH, Enzo, Caicedo, Palmer, Nkunku, Lavia are some names presently ahead of Carney in the pecking order.
Aside from the names mentioned above, constant knee niggles/injuries remain Carney’s biggest mountain.
It’s still early days and there’s loads of games to come but there has been speculation of Chelsea willing to part ways with the former Aston Villa man if an offer in the range of £40 million comes in.
My verdict – Keep Carney for the first half of the season, and if nothing changes, loan by January.
Marc Guiu :
18-year old striker signed for €6 million from Barcelona, Marc has impressed during this pre-season.
Big, strong and good link-up play are some of the attributes the young Spaniard has shown but what has impressed me the most about him is his tireless pressing.
Guiu’s hunger and intensity out of possession translates well to what Enzo Maresca wants from his striker but with Jackson offering equal attributes albeit to a greater proportion, it is harder to see how Guiu dispossesses the Senegalese striker.
After the signing of Samu Omorodion and with the rumor of the directors at Chelsea still keeping an eye out for opportunities in the striker market, it would be wise to allow Marc Guiu continue his development away from Stamford Bridge.
There’s talent in there no doubt but there’s also a whole lot to work on and the pressure at the Bridge might just be too much to handle for the Spanish youngster.
My verdict – go out on loan whether Chelsea signs a new striker or not.
Pre-season is over now and the Premier League begins on Friday but the Blues are not in action until Sunday as Manchester City come visiting to Stamford Bridge.
