Enzo Maresca is keen to keep Marc Guiu, Josh Acheampong, and Tyrique George as part of his first-team squad despite a lack of competitive minutes for the trio. The set of teenagers have all played a key role in helping Chelsea progress to the knockout stages of the Conference League but are not making Premier League appearances yet.
In a boost for Maresca, and a credit to the club’s academy, all three (with Guiu coming from Barcelona over the summer) have been more than good enough in senior football so far, although their opponents have been extremely weak. Guiu, in particular, has been a standout after scoring five times in the last two group phase matches.
Acheampong only returned into the fold last week away to Astana after spending two months in exile due to a contract stand-off. He started along with George in Kazakhstan and in Thursday’s 5-1 win over Shamrock Rovers.
The Conference League has been an ideal first introduction for the youngsters but they will all need bigger tests to come in order to further develop. Guiu, for starters, is the only one to have played any Premier League minutes, and that was as a substitute on the opening day of the season.
Maresca believes that having them around his senior players will aid their improvement, though. “With young players like Marc, like Josh, like Tyrique, for me, the best thing for them is to be with us because they can understand every day the way we want to play,” he said after the win over Shamrock Rovers. “They can grow, we can teach them how we want them to play. So I think it’s better if they stay with us.
“But then it depends a little on the desire of the players. If in this case, Marc’s desire is to get more minutes and to play more, then we see we sit with him and we will decide to together.”
Guiu played a big part in Chelsea’s pre-season with Nicolas Jackson given an extended leave but others in the squad facing an exit regardless. “There are players who unfortunately didn’t play a lot with us in all the competitions, like [Ben] Chilwell, like Carney [Chukwuemeka], and probably they are the first who want to leave because they work every day,” Maresca admitted. “They train every day, because they want to play games.
“And if they don’t play games, probably they are thinking to leave. But then we will see. With each player, it’s a different situation. So we’re going to see if some of them come knock on my door to say they want to leave, but it depends. We try to find a solution.”
Chilwell and Chukwuemeka, specifically, were expected to move on over the summer but appropriate deals were not forthcoming. Both are now likely to be in a priority position when it comes to finding a new home next month.
Maresca isn’t ruling out wider changes, though. When asked if Chelsea would consider adding Cole Palmer to the squad for the knockout rounds, he offered an insight into the mechanics of the next six weeks.
“It depends also a little bit about January window transfers,” he said. “It depends if players are going to leave or players are going to arrive. So talking at this moment about the next squad, I don’t know, I don’t have any idea, we need to wait and we’ll see.”
