Chelsea fans will expect positive results to come early and often, as they always do, but with yet another new manager at the helm to begin the 2024/25 campaign, Enzo Maresca is pleading for time and patience to build the club back towards Premier League and European relevance.
The Blues fell into the mid-table doldrums last year under Mauricio Pochettino, and while they showed signs of positive growth through the second half of the season, it wasn't enough to save his job. Chelsea owner Todd Boehly made a change, letting Pochettino go and bringing Maresca on, but the Italian says it will take more time to bring these players along.
"This is a process," Maresca told media in Charlotte prior to the defeat to Real Madrid. "You cannot think after two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, one month everything is going to work in the right way."
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It was a mantra that had been repeated earlier by experienced and successful Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, who said he thought Chelsea may need time to bring its young squad to the level fans expect.
"I think they have a good squad, good players, and a young manager," Carlo Ancelotti said in Charlotte prior to the Chelsea friendly. "I think they need to be a little bit patient to take experience, to grow, but the signings that they have in the last year are really good."
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Maresca was appreciative of Ancelotti's support, and indicated that if anyone knows how to build a top European team up from a disappointing dip, it's his fellow Italian who has secured nearly every trophy there is to win at the club level.
"I really appreciate Carlo's words," Maresca said. "I worked with Carlo, under Carlo, and his career is something unbelievable. He knows better than me and many many other people in this kind of business that the way to reach something important is...it's not something magic that you can reach in two days. This is not football, it's PlayStation, it's a different thing, it's PlayStation, it is not football.
"You need time. I know that most managers, we ask for time, it's like an excuse, but it's not an excuse it's a reality."
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While Maresca's words are logical and understandable, it may not be a reality he can expect to live in. Chelsea were defensively porous last season under Pochettino, and the club has shown little improvement in that regard during their preseason tour of the United States with Maresca at the helm.
