“Dream” Enzo Maresca team has super-expensive goalkeeper and Lille striker

Football London have just written up what they think is Enzo Maresca’s “dream” team to start next season, when we begin our fixture list with a game against Man City.

Their “dream 20 man squad” for the first game of next season is as follows:

As you can see, there are some of our new signings in the mix, but also some players we’ve been linked with but not signed – Diogo Costa and Jonathan David.

Don’t forget, Reece James is suspended for the first game of next season, that’s why he’s not in the squad.

According to this, Maresca will play his usual 433, with Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in the middle.

When it comes down to centre backs, the eyebrow raising decision to include Wesley Fofana after effectively two seasons out is an interesting one.

What this tells us about modern football fans

Now we understand that this is all just a bit of fun and not meant to be taken too seriously – but it’s illustrative of a wider football fandom problem which has found itself ultra-focused at Chelsea in the last couple of years as the new ownership has gone transfer crazy.

The entire squad has been overhauled over the last two years, with just a handful of players left from before the summer of 2022. And yet apparently our “dream” lineup should see some of last season’s best performers in Conor Gallagher and Nicolas Jackson dropped.

For who? For theoretical signing Jonathan David and actual signing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Is there even any evidence that they’re better than Jackson and Gallagher? We’re not so sure.

The desire for the new and shiny remains insatiable, it seems