Maresca arranges team meeting with Chelsea fruit-cutters

ENZO MARESCA hopes that Chelsea’s KITCHEN STAFF can inspire his stars to Champions League football.

And he called a meeting of 100 employees at the training ground to let everyone know they have a part to play — even the fruit-cutters.

He reminded his under-performing stars just how many people are working hard behind the scenes to help them achieve their goals.

Boss Maresca revealed: “I prepared a meeting with all the people: The kitchen staff, groundsmen, kit men, everyone inside the building.

“I asked them to push until the end because our target was to bring this club back into the Champions League. I did this a month ago.

“I said to the players in that meeting, ‘When I arrive here in the morning at seven o’clock, there are people from the kitchen cutting the fruit in the same way’. Cut, cut, cut, cut.

“So there are people behind who you cannot see, who are working every day to help you to reach your target.

“The kitchen people are preparing breakfasts and they are doing it all perfectly.

“I tried to convince them there are people behind who work hard and we need to push all together to reach our target.”

Maresca, whose side face a crunch clash at fellow top-four contenders Aston Villa this evening, revealed his kitchen-staff plan was the result of a sleepless night.

He said: “I went to bed at 12 o’clock and I woke up at four o’clock. It was when we were third or fourth. I couldn’t sleep.

“I started to think, ‘It could be a good idea in the morning to arrive and pull all the people together in the building and share this message’. And they were there, everyone, at ten o’clock.”

Maresca is not the first Chelsea boss to seek inspiration from fruit.

Mauricio Pochettino, axed last summer to make way for Maresca, kept lemons in his office as he believes they suck up negative vibes.

Chelsea certainly need inspiration from somewhere after a barren spell of two Prem wins since December 16.

The Blues have slipped to sixth.

Maresca made it clear his players had to step up in spite of an injury crisis.

He said: “My ambition since I joined this club has been always the same, to bring this club where this club deserves to be.

“It’s the reason why I joined this club, because I saw the same desire from the owners and the sports directors.

“Otherwise there was no sense to join, because this club cannot just survive, it’s a club that you need to win games, you need to fight for something important.”