Maresca suggests Chelsea will not sign defender
Enzo Maresca has indicated that Chelsea will not be signing a centre-back to replace Levi Colwill.
Colwill is out with a long-term knee injury and head coach Maresca recently made it clear he wanted a signing made before the transfer window closes.
However, at a news conference on Thursday morning, the Italian said: “We are looking for an internal solution.
“We showed that last game against Palace and we will see what happens. We are trying to find a solution.”
Maresca also insisted that Wesley Fofana is “very happy” at Chelsea despite the defender deleting all mention of the club from his Instagram account.
Chelsea do have other options with Colwill sidelined.
As well as Tosin Adarabioyo and Trevoh Chalobah and Fofana has been edging his way back to fitness and Chelsea recently signed Jorrel Hato from Ajax for £37m. Benoît Badiashile is another option.
Speaking last week, though, Maresca said: “I think we need a central defender. We are also looking for a solution internally, but the club knows what I think.
“Benoit is not on the left side. When we build, we build with Levi in the middle.
“Last year we played 64 games – and we played 64 games with Levi and (or) Tosin. Now Levi is out, the only one who can do that job well is Tosin. We have Premier League, Champions League – these kinds of games.
“Hato is a new one and he never played in the middle last season. Can he do that? It’s different.
“Also we have players like Wes and Benoit who, unfortunately, at this moment have some (injury) problems, and this is the reason why I said that the club knows exactly what I think about central defenders.”
