Chelsea can return to glory days if Maresca is given time, says Makelele

Claude Makelele believes Chelsea are on course to return to their former glory days, but only if the Blues give Enzo Maresca time at the helm. 

Maresca arrived at Stamford Bridge from Leicester City in July last year, replacing Mauricio Pochettino, with the Italian enjoying a successful first season at the club. 

He guided them to a fourth-placed finish in the Premier League, sealing a return to the Champions League, while also lifting silverware in the Conference League.

Overall, Maresca has won 39 of his 62 games across all competitions with Chelsea (D9 L14), with those matches including the Blues' run to the Club World Cup semi-finals, where they will face Fluminense on Tuesday.

But the managerial merry-go-round in SW6 means speculation around Maresca's future at the club is never far away when results take a downturn.

Since Makelele left Chelsea in 2008, there have been 15 different managers, with Jose Mourinho's second stint between 2013 and 2015 the longest of those tenures at 927 days. 

Makelele told reporters at the Club World Cup: "Good. [Enzo Maresca has been] good and I'm not surprised.

"Everybody criticised him in the beginning, but he won a trophy and he qualified for the Champions League.

"I think Chelsea need to give him time, because in football you need time for the manager.

"We saw with Luis Enrique, he got the time to build his team [at PSG]. I think the future for Chelsea will be great soon."

Makelele, who made 217 appearances for Chelsea across all competitions in a five-year spell, also leapt to the defence of forward Nicolas Jackson, who has been linked with a move away from the club. 

Jackson joined Chelsea in 2023 and has endured a mixed spell with the Blues, scoring 30 times in 80 outings for the club in all competitions so far. 

But the 24-year-old has not featured in Chelsea's last three Club World Cup fixtures, two of which through suspension following a red card against Flamengo before he was an unused substitute against Palmeiras. 

Maresca has bolstered his striker options with the big-money additions of Liam Delap and Joao Pedro, though Makelele believes Jackson is still deserving of his place at the club. 

"He's doing very well," Makelele said of Jackson. "Everybody criticises him, but he's a striker who sacrifices for his team.

"I know him, I've been there, I know he's a good boy.

"Of course, he needs some help from another striker because he can't play all the games. But for me, he is a good player."

Another of Makelele's former teams, Paris Saint-Germain, have also enjoyed recent success after lifting their maiden Champions League crown back in June. 

The Parisiens have flourished under Luis Enrique, with the Spaniard focusing on nurturing home-grown and younger talents after the club had brought in several huge names like Lionel Messi and Neymar in the past. 

PSG are on the opposite side of the draw to Chelsea at the Club World Cup, facing Real Madrid, another side who Makelele represented, in the other semi-final. 

And Makelele believes the new-found identity and philosophy Luis Enrique has instilled is why the Ligue 1 champions are on the right trajectory.

"PSG have progressed in a good way. The club is changing a lot. It has made a lot of mistakes before," Makelele added.

"I think when you compete in the Champions League, you can bring in all the money in the world.

"But football is not for the money. It's about the platform, about building the young players' talent. I think Paris Saint-Germain understands this now.

"You can still mix in big players because in my time in Madrid we always had big players. But as a club [Paris] needed to be stronger.

"Paris, they've progressed a lot, and I am happy because I built the beginning of this project with Qatar, and I'm happy now that they've won the Champions League."