Enzo Maresca: Chelsea want to sign more players

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has said the club are targeting further incomings before the end of the transfer window despite completing their 10th summer signing earlier this week.

Pedro Neto joined Chelsea in a £54 million ($69.6m) deal from Wolves on Monday, following Tosin Adarabioyo, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Filip Jörgensen, Omari Kellyman, Aaron Anselmino, Caleb Wiley, Renato Veiga and Marc Guiu into west London while Estêvão Willian will join the club in 2025.

That activity has left Chelsea with a bloated squad of 43 players as they look to move on several unwanted members including Conor Gallagher, whose proposed £34 million move to Atlético Madrid is on hold while the LaLiga club raise funds to complete the deal.

Chelsea are in talks with Atlético over the possible acquisition of João Félix while Napoli are open to incorporating Victor Osimhen in a player-plus cash swap deal for Romelu Lukaku.

Asked about the links to Félix and Osimhen, Maresca said on Friday: “The only thing I can say is I always have to say the same. They are not our players so it is not correct, I think, to talk about a Napoli player or — who is the other one? — an Atlético Madrid player.

“In this moment, the club knows exactly what I think in terms of what we need in case we do something and hopefully before we finish the transfer window, we can bring in some players.”

Gallagher and Trevor Chalobah are among a number of players training away from the first-team squad ahead of Chelsea’s season-opener against champions Manchester City on Sunday.

Gallagher will not be available against City, while Ben Chilwell, Armando Broja and Raheem Sterling are among the players who could depart before the window closes.

“We have been 20 days in America with 28, 29 players so it has been quite good in terms of managing the squad,” Maresca said. “Now we have the guys who are not involved in our squad, they are training apart. At the moment, it is not difficult, also because if I start to think I have 43 players, probably it is not a good thing.

“I just finished the session now and I am already thinking about tomorrow’s session. It is the only thing I like to do, I like to control, If you start thinking about 43 players, ‘manager [has] no time,’ I think it is not worth it.

“The [sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart] are there trying to find solutions for these kinds of players. I am not the guy in charge of finding solution for these players otherwise they have to pay me double.”

Maresca left Leicester City after winning the Championship title last season to succeed Mauricio Pochettino at Stamford Bridge and revealed that he has recently spoken with two fellow Italians in Claudio Ranieri and Carlo Ancelotti, both of whom managed Chelsea previously.

“I spoke with Claudio Ranieri and the reason why was also because I spoke with him before I started the season with Leicester and we won,” Maresca said.

“So when I signed to Chelsea I called him immediately just to see if it would be the same! Then I spoke with Carlo Ancelotti when we played against Madrid [in preseason] for a while. Both of them were talking about the club [as] fantastic, about their experience here, fantastic.”