Maresca wants Madueke to remain at Chelsea
Despite Chelsea looking to offload players before the end of the transfer window, Enzo Maresca is hopeful Noni Madueke remains at the club.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca wants Noni Madueke to stay beyond the summer transfer window, but conceded "anything can happen".
The Blues are looking to offload the likes of Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, Romelu Lukaku and Trevor Chalobah before the window closes on August 30.
But Madueke, who scored in Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Servette in the first leg of their Europa Conference League play-off, is someone Maresca wants to develop and improve.
Though the Italian wants to see a more consistent level from the former PSV winger, who scored five Premier League goals in 23 appearances last term and outperformed his expected goals (xG) by 2.5.
He said: "I really like Noni. The only problem is that he has to understand that he has to be consistent during the week in training.
"He's a good player and he’s doing well with us."
Maresca believes the 22-year-old will be an important member of the squad for the season, especially with the club involved in four competitions.
Though the former Leicester City boss knows much can change in the final days of a transfer window.
He said: "Yeah absolutely. But the reality is until the window closes, anything can happen.
"But for sure Noni is the kind of player that I like. We have so many games. If it's to today it will be the next one. He's doing well since he started with us.
"The only thing he has to improve is consistency, every day, every day work hard. Then he will get minutes for sure."