Enzo Maresca has lifted the lid on a private meeting with all Chelsea employees, including the kitchen staff, which he called last month to lay down his expectations for the rest of the season.
Throughout the season, Maresca has repeatedly insisted that his young Blues squad are not yet ready to challenge at the top of the Premier League table.
He now appears to have changed his tune, though, and is adamant that Champions League qualification should be the minimum target between now and the end of the campaign.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s game against Aston Villa, Maresca revealed that he recently chaired a meeting with every club employee to let them know exactly what he expects.
“I prepared a meeting with all the people: the kitchen staff, groundsmen, kit men, everyone inside the building,” he said in Friday’s press conference.
“I asked them to push until the end because our target was to bring this club back into the Champions League. I did this a month ago.
“I said to the players in that meeting: ‘When I arrive here in the morning at 7 o’clock, there are people from the kitchen cutting the fruit in the same way. Cut, cut, cut, cut.
“So there are people behind who you cannot see, who are working every day to help you to reach your target. The kitchen people are preparing breakfasts, and they are doing it all perfectly’.
“I tried to convince them that there are people behind who work hard and we need to push all together to reach our target.
“I went to bed at 11 o’clock, 12 o’clock, and I woke up at 4 o’clock, 5 o’clock. It was when we were third or fourth. I couldn’t sleep more.
“I started to think it could be a good idea in the morning to arrive and pull all the people together in the building and share this message. And they were there, everyone, at 10 o’clock.”
Chelsea will head to Villa Park with the sole objective of claiming all three points, having won just two Premier League games since the middle of December.
They will be missing several key players, with the likes of Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke, Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile all sidelined. Maresca, however, believes those fit enough to play against Villa will understand what they need to do.
“I hope so,” he said. “What I am sure, 100 per cent, is after a moment where we struggle with results, they are going to be better. That is going to make them better, going through bad moments.
“My ambition since I joined this club has been always the same, to bring this club where this club deserves to be. It’s the reason why I joined this club because I saw the same desire from the owners and the sports directors.
“Otherwise, there was no sense to join this club, because this club cannot just survive. It’s a club that you need to win games. You need to fight for something important.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk