Enzo Maresca believes Noni Madueke is not allowing speculation over his future to distract him with the task in hand at the FIFA Club World Cup.
Chelsea take on Fluminense this evening (Tuesday) at the MetLife Stadium as the two sides go head-to-head for a place in the first-ever final of the revamped competition. Madueke has made four appearances in the tournaments up until now, with two of them being starts. However, he has not started in the knockout stages yet – and was actually an unused substitute over the course of 120-plus minutes against Benfica in Charlotte.
The England international has been strongly linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge in recent weeks with Arsenal seriously interested in the Chelsea attacker. There has been talk of Madueke being open to a move to the Emirates Stadium, while Chelsea would sell for the right price, but are not actively looking to offload the winger, football.london understands.
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The FIFA Club World Cup will see 32 of the world’s best club teams including Man City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern Munich play across 63 games from June 14-July 13.
Fans can watch every match live and for free by signing up to DAZN.
It seems as if Anthony Elanga is off to Newcastle United with a deal said to be in place for £55million, while West Ham United are understood to be demanding £60million for Mohammed Kudus. Both are players in Madueke’s position and Chelsea are thought to be also using these prices to try and gauge the transfer market.
Arsenal are reported to be reluctant to pay that sort of figure for the 23-year-old winger and are looking to find a compromise with Chelsea. Maresca has shed more light on the situation in Monday’s press conference, just a few days after saying any player who wanted to leave the club is free to do just that.
At the MetLife Stadium, the venue for Tuesday’s FIFA Club World Cup semi-final against Fluminense, Maresca said this on Madueke: “Personally I think the same noise where before the Palmeiras game, you see we gave him half an hour and he was very good, so I don’t have any doubt that if we need Noni he is going to help us, at the same moment I can understand that as a human being when there are many noise around you it’s not easy to deal with that, but hopefully he can deal with that.”
Madueke will be hoping to win his place back in the side for the semi-final, although the form of Pedro Neto – who has scored three goals in the United States this summer – has made that increasingly difficult. Madueke has been used on the left-hand side but Maresca has said on multiple occasions throughout the season that he sees him as a left-sided attacker.
Learn more
The FIFA Club World Cup will see 32 of the world’s best club teams including Man City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern Munich play across 63 games from June 14-July 13.
Fans can watch every match live and for free by signing up to DAZN.
