Defiant Maresca says Chelsea striker can develop in training, even without games

One of the strange storylines of Chelsea’s season so far has been around Marc Guiu.

He was loaned out to Sunderland in the summer then recalled before the end of the window because of the injury to Liam Delap.

Since his return though, he’s not played a single minute, despite being named on the bench a few times.

Maresca denies loan return hurting Guiu development

Marc Guiu leads the line for Sunderland. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

In his press conference today, Enzo Maresca was asked if he was worried about if this would negatively affect the striker’s development:

“I don’t think so. Personally, I don’t think so because he’s back with a big club like Chelsea,” Maresca said.

“Again, he’s going to get minutes with us, no doubt. And also for me, the development of a young player is not just about the game when you are so young. It’s also about the training session and the day-by-day. And I think it’s important that he’s with us and he’s working with us.”

Guiu missing out on full benefits of senior football

There is certainly some value in training with the first team if you’re a young player who hasn’t had much senior action, we accept that. But Guiu had a full season of that last year. Whatever he’s learning now, there’s just no denying he would be better off on loan

Even just the experience of being at Sunderland (or wherever else he might have ended up) would have been really good for his personal development in terms of adapting to new dressing rooms, new teammates, new cities, etc. etc.

Plus, it’s not like the teams he’s going to on loan wouldn’t be training. There he would have all the “day by day” plus a greater chance of playing.

It’s clear that he’s been sacrificed for the team here, which is fine – sometimes that happens. But we don’t have to pretend it’s a good situation.