Maresca outlines plan for Chelsea signing Estevao: He's just like Cole Palmer...

Maresca outlines plan for Chelsea signing Estevao: He's just like Cole Palmer...

Chelsea announced the arrival of Estevao Willian this week and now manager Enzo Maresca has revealed the plan for the teenager.

Back in June 2024, Chelsea confirmed they had agreed a deal with Palmeiras to sign Estevao Willian in the future, and it was this summer that the teenager completed his switch to Stamford Bridge in a 329M move that could rise as high as 351M.0

Estevao starred for Palmeiras at the Club World Cup and is said to be one of the best young players on the planet who already has five caps for Brazil and scored 27 goals and recorded 15 assists in his 83 appearances for Palmeiras.0

However, despite the media attention, Maresca has confirmed that he will be everything possible to keep the pressure off the 18 year old and will try to make his time at the club as enjoyable as possible so he can develop into the a world class talent.0

“We need to pay a little bit more attention, because first of all he’s from the other part of the world and also he’s very, very young,” he said. “So we need to pay attention.0

“As I said, (he is) not under pressure, give him happiness, give him time, he needs to adapt. Hopefully we can give him minutes, so he’s even more happy. But for sure, he’s a talented player.0

“For me, the biggest mistake we can do with him is to put him under pressure. He’s very young, he needs to adapt."

Estevao will hope to make his first appearance for Chelsea this week as the Blues face Bayer Leverkusen on Friday and AC Milan on Sunday. A lot of eyes will be on the youngster who posed with Dario Essugo, Marc Cucurella, Joao Pedro, Josh Acheampong, Reece James and Robert Sanchez whilst in training this week. 0

Maresca praised Estevao and compared him to Cole Palmer due to his versatility which he says will only help the side heading into the new campaign where he could feature in a lot of positions under the Italian head coach.

“He can play everywhere,” said Maresca. “He’s so good. For me, he’s like Cole, in terms of - careful - he is like Cole in terms of his position.0

“He can play outside, he can play inside, he can play everywhere. In our five attacking positions, for me, he can play everywhere.”0