Furious Cucurella lashes out at Chelsea transfers and hiring Rosenior | Football | Sport
Liam Rosenior was quickly appointed as Maresca’s successor and he delivered an immediate impact, winning in six of his opening eight fixtures across all competitions. However, Chelsea‘s performance has declined since, with the Blues managing just three victories from their last 10 matches and two of those successes came against Championship sides in the FA Cup.
It’s a spell of results that has seen the club crash out of the Champions League and drop to sixth in the top flight, three points behind Liverpool in fifth and six points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa.
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“We knew what Maresca wanted from us,” Cucurella told The Athletic. “Winning a title like the Club World Cup also helps, strengthens the bond, and you create great relationships during the celebrations. When a manager gives you that confidence and offers you a platform to fight for titles, you’d die for him.
“The moment Maresca left, it had a big impact on us. These are decisions taken by the club. If you asked me, I would not have made this decision.
“To make a change like that, the best thing is to wait until the end of the season. You would give everyone, the players and the new manager, time to get ready, have a full pre-season…
“The instability around the club comes from this, in a nutshell. We had a caretaker [Calum McFarlane] first, then a new manager, with new ideas and no time to work on them. It is what it is.”
His comments echo those shared by vice-captain Enzo Fernandez, who claimed earlier this month that the dressing room were “hurt” by the decision to axe Maresca.
“I don’t understand it,” he told Mexican broadcaster TUDN. “Sometimes there are things that we as players don’t understand, how and in what way they try to manage things.
“Obviously, it was a departure that hurt us a lot … especially in the middle of the season, it cuts everything short.
“We had an identity. He gave us an order, even though, as is the way of football, sometimes it’s good and bad.
“But he always had a very clear identity when it came to training and playing.”
