Pat Nevin Exclusive Interview with BestBettingSites.co.uk

What did Enzo Maresca show at Chelsea to earn the right to manage at Manchester City?

If he is in the running, which wouldn’t surprise me, a lot of people ask what he did at Chelsea. He had to slowly build something with a lot of young players who had to learn quickly. He wasn’t there right at the start of the whole project at Chelsea. Remember, they changed managers far too often. It’s really a struggle to build things there.

He got them Champions League football. They were in the Club World Cup. And obviously they won a European trophy (UEFA Conference League). Although, to be fair, had they not won that trophy, it would have been a joke considering the amount of money they had compared to everyone else.

I thought he was on track to where he should be, considering the money spent, the youth involved and the limitations he had in what was being brought in. If he wanted something and said this is what’s needed and they bought something else, there’s nothing he could do about that.

I think he did okay. A lot of Chelsea fans were not thinking he was a Chelsea legend or a god-like figure. They were thinking, yes, we’ve done all right. He’s okay. He was building something. So he probably showed enough.

We’re looking at a massive change now. The days when managers like Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho bestrode the world of football and every club wanted that type — that’s not necessarily what clubs want now. They want a more collegiate manager. That’s the direction they would go in.

Can Maresca be that one? More collegiate than Pep? Pep works well with people and manages up as well as down. Enzo learned a lot at Chelsea, and I think he did learn. So I wouldn’t be utterly shocked.

Do you think Cole Palmer could be persuaded to join Manchester United? Would you be worried about Chelsea holding onto him if they failed to qualify for the Champions League?

That’s a tricky one. It’s a good question, because I don’t think it comes down to whether Chelsea would sell. They would. Would Manchester United want him? They probably would. Would the money be difficult? No, they would probably sort that out.

Chelsea are a trading club. They bought Cole Palmer and they could sell him at a massive profit, and that’s what they do. The Chelsea fans would be absolutely gutted because they adore him, rightly so. There have been concerns about his consistency and his injuries.

It actually just comes down to one thing. It doesn’t come down to the clubs, it comes down to him. Does Cole Palmer fancy playing for Manchester United? That’s it. Nobody knows except Cole Palmer.

If he says Manchester United, I’ve heard hints that he was a United fan as a kid. I don’t know if that’s true, but I’ve heard that was his team as a kid. That’s a draw. When you look at what United are doing just now and how they’re playing, and the possibility that you might actually have stability at Manchester United, that becomes a temptation. With Michael Carrick, it just feels like a different place. It feels totally different.

I’ve been at Old Trafford a lot of times over the last few years and it’s been a hard place to watch football sometimes. The feeling hasn’t even been ugly, just flat. Worse than anger is people being fed up, and you never want to see that at Manchester United because of the club it is, the history it has and the size it is. The Premier League needs a big Manchester United.

I hope Michael Carrick gets the job long term. I think the group that’s in just now has already shown enough that they can lift the club. I hope they get the job for at least the next year after this season, whatever happens between now and the end of the season. I’d give them that.

Would that be enough to tempt Cole? I wouldn’t be shocked.

Enzo Fernandez is constantly linked with moves to La Liga and Real Madrid. Can you see that happening? How many more seasons do you expect him to remain as a Chelsea player?

Profit is going to be tough because of how much he cost. In reality, deals are deals, and if it’s a deal that suits Chelsea, it might be a temptation.

He’s been a good player for Chelsea. Definitely a good player. Does the world end if he leaves? No. There are other players you would be more concerned about losing. One of them being Cole Palmer.

He was bought for just over £100 million, something like that.

What you need these days is not just a creative midfielder, but a creative accountant. Sometimes you wonder if that’s what it comes down to. Do the numbers work? Does it feel right?

If they let him go, do they think they have someone else who can come in and do at least as good a job cheaper, or a better job for the same amount of money or less? If they think that, they will allow it to happen.

I think he’s been a good Chelsea player. His work rate has been great as well as his talent. But if Real Madrid want him, they usually get what they want. It’s rare to see a player at the right stage of his career turn down Real Madrid.

That would be a tough one for Chelsea. But would everything change for them because of that? No, I don’t think so. Does it change their model? No, I don’t think it does.

Personally, I’d quite like him to stay. But like Cole, it will come down to him.

Do you think Todd Boehly and Co have learned anything since their arrival as owners?

It’s been the same practice year after year, but you have to remember when they took over the club, people were worried about it going out of business. A lot of the players had left or had to leave — Azpilicueta, Rüdiger and others. So they were building from a difficult base.

They had to buy a lot of players early on, which were close to panic buys. I understood why they had to do it. They had to get numbers in and some of them cost a lot of money. I figured out quite early — and it wasn’t difficult to see — what the plan was. They were looking at it in a different way from the normal British model.

Having been an executive at a club myself and looked at various financial models, when I figured out how they were doing it, I thought it was interesting. It’s novel to some degree for the British game, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

A lot of people were saying it seemed ridiculous because there were too many players moving too quickly. It became about trading more than building a group. So yes, they’ll have learned some things.

One of the real difficulties is that with this amount of churn, footballers can look and feel like mercenaries, and somehow you need to get a group of mercenaries to feel like a team working for each other. That sounds easy, but generally there’s only one person who can do that, and that’s the coach, the manager or the management team.

If you’re changing management teams all the time, that’s hard because you’ve not built an ethic. If I would say one thing about Chelsea, there are lots of good things about the team. I love watching them. There are quite a few players I absolutely adore watching. But that group ethic has to be stronger.

I look at Arsenal and I see it there. I look at Everton and I see it there. I look at Newcastle and I see it there. Some of those teams aren’t doing as well in the league, but they haven’t spent the billions Chelsea have spent.

Whoever is in charge — and just now it’s Rosenior — has to build that up. That may be the one thing they still have to learn a wee bit.

Is Jose Mourinho’s reaction to Vinicius Jr the worst outburst of his career?

When the topic is racism in football, you have to stand back and understand this is bigger. You need to say, let’s find out what truly happened, what was actually said.

When racism is involved, everything else disappears. You deal with that first and try to find out what you can do to fix it. People say it’s a big problem in football. Actually, it’s a societal problem and it has always been a societal problem. If you look at how many outstanding Black footballers and mixed race players there are across England, we have come a long way, certainly since I was playing.

I think if José had his time again, he might do it a different way. There was a lot of stress at that moment. It was difficult.

I think racism is a really important topic though generally- I would like to see Mourinho and other managers bring it up more, in both interviews and press conferences. They should bring it up, say how important it is to address and repeat it. That would help.

I like Jose. I’ve spoken to him a few times- and he really cares about his players. However in these situations, it is important to recognise the bigger picture.

Everton reportedly want to sign Jack Grealish – is he worth the £50m City are said to be demanding?

Not at £50 million. Absolutely no chance. No hope. Not at Everton Football Club. The way they work, the way David Moyes works, that doesn’t happen.

It’s brinkmanship. Everton would love him and they would absolutely take him, but that’s not going to be his value. He’s 30 now, the other side of his peak. Very few players increase their value or even maintain that sort of value at that age, unless you’re scoring 30 goals a season.

£50 million doesn’t sound like a lot of money these days, but it is for Everton Football Club. That’s not going to happen. If it was in the region of £20–25 million — and I’m not even saying that’s Jack’s value, that’s not the point — that’s where a deal could be done if you’re Everton and it might make sense.

There’s no sell-on value. There probably isn’t any sell-on value at all for Jack if he stays for two or three years, particularly as he’s had a number of injuries. It’s a tough one for Manchester City. They paid upwards of £100 million and if you depreciate that over the years, it has gone down. They’ve had the use of him for a period of time, but I cannot see it at £50 million.

Could they do a deal? I wouldn’t be surprised. That’s a possibility. Who else can afford Jack’s wages? You would need to really be in love with Jack to afford those wages and go towards £50 million. How many clubs are going to be able to do that now for a player of that age who has had injuries? It’s not many.

So Everton are, oddly enough, in a good bargaining position. Added to that, we all know that Jack would like to go. So I wouldn’t write that deal off yet.

Iliman Ndiaye is linked with a move to a Big Six club – is he good enough, and who would he suit?

I’ve been asked this many times before, even before the links. I’ve said, why is no world-class club coming in for Ndiaye?

People look at the highlights, the goals and the assists. I look at the overall play and the effect he can have, considering he gets a limited amount of possession in the final third. Skill-wise, he’s right up there. Absolutely right up there. His game awareness is very good as well. His creativity is through the roof.

If he was playing for Manchester City or Chelsea, you’d be talking about him all day long. The guy’s brilliant. There’s not even a shadow of a doubt he’s good enough to play for one of those teams.

Here’s the caveat: don’t go to Manchester City and then not get a game. Don’t do that. Don’t do what Jack Grealish did and go to Manchester City, suddenly moving from being a player who is free and can do what he likes, playing brilliantly, to being slightly in and out of the team over a number of seasons because there are other brilliant players there.

Wherever he ends up, if he does leave Everton, I hope he gets a game every week and is not one of a rotated six. Even look at what’s happened to Eberechi Eze. He’s unbelievable. He’s an amazing player. But he goes to Arsenal and he’s in and out of the team. It’s a really difficult one.

I always thought Eze was capable of playing for any top team, and Ndiaye is the same. He’s capable of playing for them all. But if you choose one, go somewhere where there aren’t seven wingers on the books. With the best will in the world, they’ll be great as well.

He’s good enough. If he doesn’t move and stays at Everton, that might be the best thing he could do. Even though he’s good enough to go to a higher level, will it make him happier in the long run? I’m not sure.

Can Everton finish above Liverpool this season?

If you’d asked me that question three days ago, I would have said not really. Liverpool were coming back into it and looking more like themselves again.

I was at Nottingham Forest v Liverpool at the weekend and Liverpool were very poor in that first half. I was walking back to where I’d parked at the station in Nottingham and I was walking along with a couple of Liverpool fans. This isn’t me as a former Evertonian saying Liverpool were terrible. Even the manager said it. The fans said it. It was very strange.

Considering Liverpool were going into that game fighting for a top-five place alongside United and Chelsea, I was quite stunned that they weren’t really at it. So Liverpool have weaknesses at the moment and they have not got the depth of squad. Nowhere near it.

Does that mean Everton are going to overtake them? Probably not. But it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility. Had they lost at Nottingham and had Everton managed to get a win tonight, the question would have been absolutely reasonable.

There was that late winner by Alexis Mac Allister and, as we speak, we don’t know the score tonight. It’s a long shot, but it’s not impossible.

Do you think Martin O’Neill could be tempted to stay on for one more season?

They would almost need to win the title in style. It’s a complicated club at the moment. It’s not easy, particularly with the difficulties between the fans and the structure of the club. That’s not against Martin O’Neill. Clearly they love him. But that atmosphere is not easy to work in.

Football management is a horribly hard job. It’s the one job in football I refused to do. I was offered it a few times, but I thought I’m not doing that. If you don’t have the team, the club and the fans together, it makes it even harder. In Scotland, if you’re Celtic or Rangers, there are two positions: first and worst.

He would have to win the league and win it in style. That looks unlikely at the moment. They could win it, but winning it in style looks less likely. It’s a big call for Martin to stay on because they would still need to buy more players. They’re not the finished article yet.

He has mentioned that financially they can’t really compete at the highest level in Europe. Although people always point to Bodø/Glimt as an example, which is a fair argument, but they are outliers.

Is it possible? Yes. It is possible that Celtic and the board would want him to stay. But who is the board at the moment? There’s an interim chair, Brian Wilson, who is a good man, but there is uncertainty. Decision-making hasn’t been great during the season, with the previous appointment not working out. It’s a tough situation to stay in and navigate.

Again, it comes down to the individual. Celtic might want him, but does Martin really fancy putting himself in that position and potentially putting his legacy at risk in the longer term?

I do know he was disappointed that his phone didn’t ring with top offers for a few years when he knew he was capable. He missed a few years when he should have been in the game.

If I had to guess, I would say it probably won’t happen. But I wouldn’t be shocked if it did.

What are your thoughts on United’s past transfer strategy?

I think it’s always been a mistake. Part of Manchester United’s problem for quite some time has been that Galáctico idea. Have a look around — that’s not what the top teams are doing. Nobody’s doing that anymore.

If you’re Real Madrid and you can afford to get ten of them in, that’s fine, but you’re not going to do that because there are too many other teams who can fight and battle with you financially. You need to build a group now. That’s just the way it is.

For all that I think Arsenal are a fabulous side, an amazing squad, easily the best squad in terms of depth, they’re not building a Galáctico squad. Even Manchester City — and you’ve got to say there’s no bigger Galáctico than Erling Haaland — he’s the one in world football just now alongside MBappe. But he’s not been asked to play like a Galactico. He’s been asked to get back in gear and work his socks off, and he’s doing it.

So that whole Galáctico thing — I think some clubs can live with it. But I actually think it’s held Manchester United back for a while.

Did Arsenal silence the doubters after they demolished Tottenham? Is that the result they need to go on and win the title?

There’s always benefit in beating your neighbours.

Good players look at it game to game because there’s no other way to do it. If you do it any other way, you’ll find yourself in a bad place. Managers have to take a wider view as well. They step back and look at the overall season and how it compares with other seasons and where the team is.

It’s basically them and City again. With the best will in the world, Villa have done well, but it’s going to be Manchester City and Arsenal again. City are coming back into form now. Arsenal have only lost three games this season and that’s in all competitions. Let’s be clear about it. There have been a couple of draws. The Premier League is hard. You don’t walk away with it. Wolves can be unbelievably difficult if they catch you on the wrong day, especially away. All these teams can be like that. There are no easy games.

Arsenal will be looking at it and thinking, yes, we’re all right at the moment. We’re up there. It’s still in their own hands, as I believe it is for Manchester City as well. If you’re a player, you should be thinking this is a great place to be.

You shouldn’t be thinking it’s going to happen again, we are going to crack. I don’t think the top players think like that and I don’t think the manager thinks like that. Fans might think like that because all they can do is shout. But as a player and as a unit, you believe because you can affect it. I think they will believe at the moment.

Does it make them massive favourites? I still think they’re slight favourites, because of the depth of the squad more than anything else. But City are looking better than they have at any point this season. They’re getting better all the time and you suspect that’s going to continue into the run-in.

Arsenal vs Chelsea

That’s a very interesting game. They’ve already played twice since the new manager came in and it was interesting. Chelsea got two goals back in the first leg. In the second leg I thought the tactics were quite clever. They didn’t work, but they were clever.

At that point in time, if Chelsea had opened up against Arsenal, I think they could have been ripped to shreds. So they played what you might call a “low block”, getting everyone behind the ball in simple terms, and then tried to have a go near the end. People think that’s a strange tactic, but it’s perfectly reasonable and sometimes works for underdogs.

Now they have to go for it. Chelsea can’t do that again in this situation, not in the league. They have to try and win the game more. So for both teams, it should be a much more open affair.

Looking at Chelsea more than Arsenal for a moment, since the new manager came in they have had just about the easiest run of games you could have. Now you look at what’s coming up. This is when you judge it. This is when you judge the new group in the touchline.

They’ve got Manchester United coming up, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Arsenal, Newcastle who are in good form, and then away at Everton, which has been a real bogey team for Chelsea for quite some time.

So I don’t think Chelsea can sit back with their backs against the wall against Arsenal. I think they have to come out in this one and have a go.

For Arsenal, it’s huge. How many points can you afford to lose between now and the end of the season? Not many. A draw would not be a great result for Arsenal. It’s that tight. It’s that difficult. They need the win. Simple as that.