“The team that will dominate English football” – Manager’s big prediction excludes himself from praise

Enzo Maresca keeps insisting that Chelsea aren’t in a title race, and keeps insisting that the club’s ownership didn’t set him any specific targets for the season.

But today he did admit that he thought this group of players – with him or without him – were set to “dominate” English football as the new ownership were rewarded for their billion pound transfer frenzy.

“The good thing is that I still think what I said to the owners and the sporting directors the first time I met them; because of the age, and how good the squad is, for me Chelsea in the next five or 10 years will be one of the teams, or the team, that will dominate English football,” Maresca said in today’s press conference ahead of the game against Southampton tomorrow night.

“I said this to the club the first time I met them, no matter who the manager will be. Because of the age, because of the squad, you can dominate English football. I still think exactly the same,” Maresca concluded.

You can see the coach speaking in the clip embedded here:

Maresca refuses to tempt fate with any big predictions

The way things are going right now, Maresca can count on being in charge for that full 5 or 10 years. But there’s a reason he refuses to say he’s in a title race, and refuses to discuss any “targets” set: he knows how quickly thing can change in football, and he’s not going to be the sucker who taunts the gods with some hubris about how good this team can be.

He’s also quite generously (perhaps tactically) essentially giving all the credit for this recent run to the squad, and to those who recruited them, rather than taking it for himself.