Insider claims £120m prize means Chelsea are pushing for a whole new target this season

Ben Jacobs is well known as someone with good sources at Chelsea who breaks a lot of transfer news, and he’s put those contacts to good use today with a long preview of the Blues’ season for Give Me Sport.

It’s full of interesting snippets, but particularly fascinating was the section about the ownership and their expectations for the season ahead. So far they’ve ruthlessly chopped Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino, what does Maresca have to do to avoid the same fate?

Well, while the manager insisted “nobody from the club ask me for Champions League this year,” Jacobs disagrees.

He writes that Chelsea’s owners “expect to qualify for the Champions League this season,” and while missing out won’t necessarily cost the coach his job… well, we all saw what happened to the last two guys.

Emphasis on new competitions.

One thing we hear suggested for the first time here – although we expect to hear a lot more about it as the year goes on – is that the inaugural expanded Club World Cup in American next summer will play a big role.

Jacobs writes here that entrants are likely to receive around £40m and the winner up to £120m, so it’s a question of cash flow as well as prestige.

That’s something football fans are going to have to get used to in this format – a usually rather forgotten competition suddenly taking on new importance.

Maresca will have to make it that far of course, and if we start this season like we did last season, that could be a challenge. It will also mean this season truly extends to crazy proportions: as Jacobs writes:

“Chelsea are hoping and planning for an 80 game season and Maresca knows that’s more than enough fixtures to show what he and his young squad are capable of.”