Maresca opens January exit door for those who 'didn't play a lot' in first half of the season
Today at 08:43 PM
Ready to find solutions
The January transfer window swings wide open in ten days, and Enzo Maresca is expecting his door to be doing the same, with the likes of Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka standing on the other side, asking to leave.
For the latter, a potential loan move has been rumored for a while now, while for the former, it would only make sense to look for actual playing time after not being part of the squad in any real sense under Maresca.
"There are players who unfortunately didn't play a lot with us in all the competitions, like Chilwell, like Carney, and probably they are the first who want to leave because they work every day, 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."
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
But the head coach's open offer, be that a loan or a transfer, is likely not restricted to just these two since the squad is big and more than a few players may feel less satisfied with their lot right now. Everyone wants to play — and we want players to want to play — but minutes aren't unlimited. It's one of the tougher problems in managing a large squad and trying to build a team that can compete across multiple fronts without running players into the ground (i.e. having two quality options at every position, at least).
"Unfortunately, I cannot say that (he is definitely going to stay), not about Kiernan [Dewsbury-Hall], about all the squad, because when the transfer window is open, unfortunately, anything can happen.
"So I'm not focused on January, the only thing I can say about Kiernan is that we are very happy in the way he's working, we are very happy about his performance, and this is my thought about Kiernan."
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
To be clear though, Maresca isn't talking about youngsters in this case, like those who were just recently promoted full-time into the senior squad, like Tyrique George and Josh Acheampong.
"With young players like Marc [Guiu], 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, 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."
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
January may not be so boring in the transfer market afterall...
