Enzo Maresca knew what was coming. As soon as he sat down he joked about there being no questions about the owners.
Question five was the ownership one. Predictably, he stressed he was just concentrating on preparing his team for Bournemouth on Saturday – but he did say he couldn’t spend his energy thinking about the ownership struggle. He also admitted he has spoken with both owners over the past few weeks.
The other main talking point was the short-term future of Ben Chilwell. It appears there is a possible way back for him to at least train with the squad.
This was Maresca’s take on the current impasse: “We will sit with him and find solutions. He is probably going to be back with us [training]. We will see. At the moment, he is not training with us.
“The reason why he was training apart is because the idea was for him to leave. We didn’t find solutions and he is here. I saw him this morning – he’s OK.”
So I think we can now expect Chilwell to return to first-team training after the club’s failure to sell or loan him out.
On the injury front, Malo Gusto will be missing at Bournemouth and Reece James still needs more time because of his hamstring injury. But Romeo Lavia is close to a return and he will possibly be ready for the West Ham game on 21 September.