Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca is struggling to keep all of the players in his bloated squad happy, with Manchester United one of the rivals circling over stars demanding more game time
Enzo Maresca has insisted Christopher Nkunku is not for sale after the Chelsea star was linked with a move to Manchester United.
Nkunku joined the Blues from RB Leipzig for £53million in the summer of 2023. But his debut season was heavily disrupted by injury and he has struggled for chances in the Premier League this term.
His sole start in the top flight this campaign was the opening-day defeat by Manchester City. Since then, he has been forced to settle for a role as a sub and he has not played for more than 15 minutes in any of Chelsea’s last seven games.
Instead, he has mainly featured in cup competitions as part of the Blues’ second string. That has allowed him to become the team’s top scorer in all competitions with 10 goals.
His struggles for game time led to reports that the Frenchman is unhappy and eyeing a move to United in the January window. But Maresca has now firmly put that suggestion to bed by insisting Nkunku remains a key player.
“I spoke to Christo days ago and he did not say he was unhappy. For sure, he would like to play minutes, but like many players. We have so many games, especially in December. Since we started, for me, there are not two squads – the squad is only one,” he said.
“They can play Conference League or the Premier League. I completely want Christo to stay with us. I don’t have any idea to let him leave in January. Christo’s best position is between the lines as a No 10 but Cole [Palmer] is playing there.
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“Joao Felix played a Premier League game the other day against Leicester and Christopher, for sure, is going to play Premier League games. But we have many players, we try to share minutes with all of them.
“The intention, the target is to keep all of them happy, even knowing that sometimes it’s not possible. Now is not the moment or the time to think about January, we are still at the end of November, we still have many, many games, especially in December, then we will see.”
Maresca has admitted that he is struggling to share the minutes around his bloated squad. He added: “The problem with Chris… it’s not a problem, it’s the same issue and the same thing we mentioned many times about Joao.
“If you play with Cole, if you play with Joao, if you play with Christo, if you play with Noni [Madueke], if you play with Jadon [Sancho]… who is defending? Because their skills are not defending, it’s to attack. We love them, we want them but also we need balance.
“The last game we tried with Joao and Cole together. Hopefully next game or soon we can try Christo and Cole, Christo and Joao, for sure, and the reason why is because we have so many games.
“We are not going to play many games with Cole and Christo, or with Cole and Joao, we played the other day but you need balance. Leicester’s plan won’t be the same as Aston Villa’s plan. They are all fantastic players, they are all going to play games, no doubt. But not every game.”
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