CHELSEA stars could be set for five years of bland food after the arrival of new boss Enzo Maresca.
The Blues announced yesterday that Maresca has penned a five-year deal at Stamford Bridge, replacing Mauricio Pochettino in the dugout.
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Maresca, a disciple of Pep Guardiola, is expected to bring a possession based philosophy to west London after implementing an attractive style of play at Leicester last season.
But alongside his new tactics, Maresca is bringing his coaching staff too.
That includes fitness coach Marcos Alvarez, who was with Maresca at the King Power last season as the Foxes gained promotion to the Premier League.
Alvarez is known to be red hot on maintaining players’ fitness levels and takes some crazy measures when it comes to monitoring their diets.
As well as his time with Leicester last season, Alvarez has also implemented his brutal diet and fitness regimes at Sevilla, Tottenham and Parma in the past.
According to the Telegraph, Alvarez banned fruit juice, cake, sauce, salt and pepper while working for Spurs under manager Juande Ramos in 2007.
It’s also said that his strict dietary rules saw fried eggs stripped from the breakfast menu at Leicester last season.
Alvarez is also understood to be obsessive about players’ fat ratios and during his time in north London made the Spurs team shed a combined 100kg.
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Chelsea players can expect their pre-match meals to be changed, their training ground menu to be ripped up and their body mass to be examined with regular weigh-ins.
Blues stars will have to obey the rules if they want to meet the high standards set by their new boss and his fitness coach – something the Spurs squad of 2007/08 failed to do.
Former Lilywhites pair Jamie O’Hara and Darren Bent previously told TalkSPORT how hard the diet was to maintain and explained that some players even took measures to break the rules by secretly eating McDonalds.
O’hara said: “When Juande Ramos came in, he banned ketchup and any sauce. He was big on it. It was dry pasta, chicken and that was for the whole time he was there.
“We went on a pre-season trip and that was tough when there’s no sauce to anything. You’re just eating dry chicken and pasta.
“I remember the security guy, Alan Dixon who is still there now, used to sneak the boys out and get McDonald’s.”
While Bent recalled: “There was one meat option, one fish, and maybe plain rice and vegetables – that was it.
“There was no salt, no pepper… no flavour! There was no crumble, either.
“There was also dry pasta — a pasta option with no sauce. You try and eat pasta with no sauce. Pasta, no sauce, no salt or pepper, not even a tomato!
“Dry pasta, dry chicken, plain vegetables… and no crumble. People tried, people said to him: ‘Look, Juande, people are struggling…’
“Even our captain, Ledley King, was like ‘Listen gaffer, we’re struggling here, what’s up with this food?’.
“Honestly, it was tough. The food was really tough to eat. It sounds really silly, but honestly it was really tough!”.
Maresca has brought six new coaches to Chelsea with him including Alvarez.
The other five that have joined him at Stamford Bridge are Roberto Vitiello, Danny Walker, Michele de Bernadin, Javier Molina Caballero and former Blues goalkeeper Willy Caballero.
Meet Pep Guardiola disciple Enzo Maresca
ENZO MARESCA is considered among the most exciting young coaches on the planet.
Born in Italy in 1980, he managed to guide Leicester to the Championship title in his first season as Foxes boss.
His management career started at Italian minnows Ascoli before he was snapped up by Man City in 2020 to manage their Elite Development Squad.
He guided the youth team to the Premier League 2 title in his one season working for the Citizens – with Cole Palmer in the side.
His first senior job was with Parma but he was sacked after just a few months after failing to impress.
Despite the team playing in Serie B and Maresca having an impressive squad he was unable to get them on course for promotion.
He returned to Man City and worked as one of Pep Guardiola’s assistants for the 2022/23 season as they won the Treble.
He took over relegated Leicester last summer and made an immediate impact, with the Foxes winning the Championship title.
Maresca showed his dedication to the job by living at the training ground for the first two months after his appointment.
He’s considered something of a Pep disciple and has said: “For a coach, it’s important to have the mentality of a chess player.”
During his playing career he played under Carlo Ancelotti and Marcello Lippi – and alongside ex-Brighton boss Roberto de Zerbi.