Give Enzo Maresca his flowers! Conference League trophy beckons after Chelsea's Champions League qualification - and the Blues' maligned head coach deserves huge credit

Maresca was insistent from the outset that he was under orders to deliver a return to the Champions League within two seasons, rather than at the end of his debut campaign. And while the Italian probably paid the price for his side flying too close to the sun in the first half of the 2024-25 campaign, as Chelsea unexpectedly emerged as Liverpool's closest challengers around Christmas before falling away alarmingly thereafter, he has still achieved that significant objective with a season to spare.

Not only that, but Maresca pulled off that feat with the youngest team in Premier League history, with the average age of his starting XIs over the course the season a little over 24. This was also the Blues' highest points total in six seasons (69), as they finished with their smallest gap to the champions (15 points) since they last won the league title in 2017.

It wasn't pretty at times. In fact, it was often downright dreadful as Chelsea toiled right up until the run-in - but when all is said and done, none of that matters; hauling this youthful group from sixth place last season straight back into the Champions League is seriously impressive. Now, a trophy beckons.

Maresca rightly revelled in finally silencing his critics by getting Chelsea over the line with room to spare on the final day of the season, telling all of his many detractors to 'eff off'.

"I didn't have any doubt about the players," he said. "The doubt was from outside. All the ones that have the answers or the ones that have the truth, they were saying that we are too young, we are not good enough, they were waiting for Aston Villa to drop points for us to achieve the Champions League. They were saying that we were not able to win on this pitch because we are too young, because we are not experienced. Unfortunately for them, they have all been wrong.

"All the ones that have the truth and have an answer to everything. So in English, how you say? 'Eff off' to all of them, because the players deserve that. The effort they have been doing is fantastic."

The focus now shifts to the Conference League final, with nothing to lose for Maresca and his Chelsea side.

Winning trophies - even in the hard times - has become a proud modern tradition for Chelsea. The club's three most recent successes, the Club World Cup in 2022, Champions League in 2021 and Europa League in 2019, all came within seriously challenging domestic campaigns.

That ability to get their hands on silverware even when the going has been tough is what has set the club apart from many of their rivals since the more dominant 2000s era, but three years on from their last triumph, there will be growing impatience with the trophy drought amid frustration with the way the club is being run by the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital consortium.

Of course, Chelsea will also be completing the European set if they are able to come out on top in Poland - potentially becoming the first club to ever win the Champions League, Europa League, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and Conference League. The latter might be the least significant by some margin, but that legacy is certainly something to play for.

Maresca is under no illusions as to the importance of the club getting back into the habit of hoarding trophies. "Probably the most complicated thing this season about the Conference [League] has been to convince the players that for us it's the best competition in the world and the reason why was because it's the competition that we were in," he said in his pre-final press conference.

Previously, the Italian tactician had explained: "It's very important for us, for different reasons, but mainly because we want this club winning trophies. Winning a trophy is a statement and you [could then] say Chelsea are back. If we play in the Conference, it's because it's where we are. [And] if you play Conference, the only trophy you can win is the Conference. I think it's a good starting point."

It's difficult to argue with that logic; having sealed Champions League qualification by virtue of a fourth-placed finish in the Premier League, courtesy of that nail-biting final-day victory over Forest, Chelsea have arguably never been better placed to kick on since the Boehly-Clearlake takeover.

This season, with the tantalising possibility of ending it with a trophy, can - and indeed, should - act as a springboard to sustained improvement. The Blues now have a core of key men including Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer, it's clear where they need to strengthen (striker!) and who needs to leave (potentially as many as 15 names), and a return to the Champions League means the club will be able to compete for a higher calibre of player in the transfer market.

Lessons will surely have been learned from last summer, when close to £100 million ($135m) was spent on Joao Felix, Renato Veiga and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, with the former two loaned out as early as January, while another raft of youngsters also arrived. This year, the scattergun needs to be holstered; the early capture of Sporting CP talent Dario Essugo already points to a more targeted, shrewd approach.

The first half of the season - when Chelsea soared as high as second and played some excellent football - demonstrated the potential under Maresca. If they get their business right, there could be much more to come in 2025-26.

Indeed, Maresca recognises that the Conference League can be a gateway to fostering a "winning mentality" among his young squad. Asked recently how significant the competition had been for their development, he said: "Very important, first of all because you need to build a winning mentality and you cannot win the Champions League or the Europa League if you are in the Conference League.

"If you are in that competition you need to be focused on winning that competition. For sure this season has helped the players to win games and it’s the only way to building a winning mentality. Now we are close to the last step and hopefully we can win the title."

Chelsea's future suddenly looks much brighter, and Maresca will know they have nothing to lose on Wednesday as they look to turn a very good season into a great one.