Maresca says winning Conference League can be the ‘starting point’ for his young Chelsea side as Blues boss eyes more success next season | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca says Chelsea’s Conference League win can provide a springboard for the club to be more successful in the future.

The Blues came from behind to beat Real Betis 4-1 in Poland to win the Conference League, thanks to goals from Enzo Fernandez, Nicolas Jackson, Jadon Sancho and Moises Caicedo.

It means Maresca finished his first season in charge of the club by winning silverware and having qualified for the Champions League next season by finishing fourth in the Premier League.

And the Italian boss hopes this is only the start for his young team.

“The message after Nottingham was if we want to be an important team, what we have done is done,” he told TNT Sports. “Now we need to win the final. This was the message.

“I’m very proud and I’m very happy for many reasons. For sure, personally I feel good, but also because I know the fans deserve that. They are waiting already for two or three years for good moments so they deserve that.

“The club has invested lots of money in the last three or four years so they are always waiting for it.

“Hopefully this can be a starting point from tonight, and we can create something important.”

Maresca surprisingly opted to leave captain Reece James out of the starting line-up but brought him on for Malo Gusto at the break, and says the decision not to play him for the whole game was because of his injury history.

“I promise you, I will start always with Reece, but I’m trying to protect him,” he said.

“He played more games this season than in the last two or three years.

“He knows that but he is a top player. He’s like Cole. The problem is we need to manage him.

“When we changed him, he said don’t worry we’re going to win the game.”

On the decision to replace Gusto, Maresca added: “Malo, I will tell you, he is one of my favourite players.

“The problem is is that in the first goal we concede, it was from his pass. They are young. They don’t understand that if you make a mistake, it doesn’t matter.

“He knows, he understands. For me, Malo is a top player.”