Fabrizio Romano continues to hold Xavi belief after Barcelona exit as Chelsea accelerates Enzo Maresca pursuit

Fabrizio Romano continues to hold his stand on Xavi amid his Barcelona exit as Maresca comes closer to Chelsea

Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano explains he is not aware of any Chelsea and Xavi Hernandez link amid several speculations. The Blues have already pursued their interest in the Leicester City coach, Enzo Maresca.

Xavi Hernandez recently left his Spanish club, Barcelona, giving rise to several speculations regarding his future. Romano has always stood by his claims that he has no idea about any rumours between Chelsea and Xavi.

Meanwhile, Chelsea has been in the transfer market searching for a new coach since the sudden sacking of Mauricio Pochettino that shocked the football community. Recently, the Blues finally decided to move ahead with the Maresca situation, by appointing him as the new head coach, according to Romano.

Chelsea finally made their favourite target a reality, giving the former Leicester City boss a five-year contract. The final compensation fee is yet to be announced but it is going to be around £10 million, according to the reports.

Romano wrote about the Chelsea and Xavi links in his Daily Briefing column, claiming:

“We’ve had a lot of stories about Xavi and I’ve already mentioned that I was not aware of any contacts with Chelsea, despite some rumours.”

“Enzo Maresca will be the new Chelsea manager – unless something crazy happens in the next 48 hours. It will be a ‘here we go’ soon because the latest contacts between Maresca and Chelsea were super positive.”

Maresca’s first self-presentation greatly pleased Chelsea. With the Foxes, who won their Championship campaign with an incredible 97 points, Maresca followed a similar tactical blueprint to his former boss, Pep Guardiola, with whom he had previously served as an assistant at Manchester City.

Maresca is likely to officially join Chelsea in the next few days. He will take over a team that placed sixth in the Premier League despite hanging in the mid-table area for most of the season but eventually qualifying for the Europa Conference League.

More Chelsea news

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• Fabrizio Romano gives the ‘here we go’ for Chelsea’s first post-Mauricio Pochettino appointment

Given that Pochettino made to leave the club even after making a significant improvement to Chelsea standing in 12th place in the previous season, Maresca might have to do complete wonders to satisfy the club owners. Given his past record, he might actually be the right guy for it, though.