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Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca is looking forward to the “relief” of arriving for work on Tuesday knowing the transfer window has closed.
A run of one win in seven Premier League matches has coincided with a period of speculation linking a number of his squad with moves, something Maresca had previously said has affected the players’ focus as they have dropped out of the top four.
Midfielder Cesare Casadei left the club on Sunday to join Serie A side Torino for a reported £12.5million, while 21-year-old defender Renato Veiga, who had broken into Portugal’s senior team for the first time since moving to Stamford Bridge in the summer, has been loaned to Juventus.
That leaves a number of players still on the books who have had limited playing time and around whom speculation continues to linger going into deadline day on Monday.
They include out-of-favour defender Ben Chilwell and summer signing Joao Felix, while Christopher Nkunku, Carney Chukwuemeka and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall have also struggled for minutes and have been linked with moves.
“For sure you have a feeling of relief,” said Maresca of the morning after the window closes. He had previously described January as “a disaster” due to the amount of speculation surrounding the squad.
“The players you are going to see, they are going to be here until the end, so there is not any noise about some of the players that are there.
“The word is relief. From now on until the end, we go on with these players and no more.
“In the small part I think all transfer windows are similar. Last year when I was at Leicester (in the Championship) in January, players arriving, players to leave – it’s the same situation you live everywhere.”
It has been an unusual window for Chelsea in that most of their prospective business has focused around players which might depart.
Maresca has had a large squad to work with during the first half of the season and has used cup competitions to share out playing time.
However, Chelsea were knocked out of the Carabao Cup in October and with no Conference League fixtures between December and March, the last six weeks has offered little opportunity for rotation.
Asked about the higher stakes in transfer dealings at Chelsea compared with life in the Sky Bet Championship, the 44-year-old said the disruption is the same.
“It doesn’t change,” he said. “Just because we speak about one player who is big and the other is not big.
“For me it’s not about how important is the player or the name of the player, it’s more about the noise that can be my name or your name or his name. It’s something that is not good.”
Maresca, whose side kick off at home to West Ham a matter of hours before Monday’s transfer deadline, said he held out no hope of the Premier League adjusting the schedule in future so that games are not played on deadline day.
“It’s something that, even if we say something, they’re going to take the decision that they want.”
