Cesc Fabregas aims subtle dig at Chelsea owners over Enzo Maresca appointment

Cesc Fabregas hopes Chelsea’s owners have done their homework and are aware of what they are letting themselves in for following their decision to appoint Enzo Maresca. After dispensing with Mauricio Pochettino last month, despite the Argentine having presided over an impressive run of form towards the end of last season, Chelsea’s hierarchy confirmed the arrival of Maresca earlier this week .

The Italian masterminded Leicester’s promotion campaign last season and is the latest disciple of Pep Guardiola to have a crack at managing in the Premier League, despite his relative lack of experience. Maresca won over Chelsea’s key decision makers with his willingness to work within the structure of the club as well as the style of football he employed that helped the Foxes return to the top flight at the first time of asking.

The 44-year-old represents the fourth manager Chelsea’s American owners have employed, including interim boss Frank Lampard, since their takeover nearly two years ago and Fabregas pointedly remarked that he just hopes they have done their homework this time around.

‘My thought is you never know or judge any decision before he’s got the time to work and prove what he’s worth,’ the former Chelsea midfielder told the BBC. ‘It happened with Zidane, with Guardiola that they started without having any type of experience.

‘They quickly won the treble, they won three times the Champions League in a row. He will have good players, he will have a good team, he will have a good young group of players who are hungry, physically ready to go who are very powerful. ‘I think he will need time. His coached in Italy with Param and at Ascoli so he’s coached in different types of environments and different types of football. We’ll see how it goes.

‘Talking about strategy I can’t say because you’re not in the conversations behind in the background and you don’t know what they’re really looking for. But definitely it’s a young coach who has done well. ‘He’s got a specific way of playing and hopefully they studied well and know exactly what they’re going after.’

On the likelihood of Maresca instantly being able to impliment the brand of football that worked so well at the King Power in the Championship, Fabregas added:

‘When you do a system you need to understand what players you have. ‘You will need to train with them. There are so many ways of doing the three plus two. You can do it with the centre backs you can do it with a No.10 dropping deep and a full-back playing as a No.10.’