In the lead-up to Chelsea‘s trip to Molineux, Noni Madueke said on his Instagram page that “everything about” Wolverhampton was “s***.” He quickly deleted the remark.
The 22-year-old winger is traveling to the West Midlands city with Enzo Maresca‘s team to play Chelsea’s second Premier League match of the season against Gary O’Neil’s Wolves.
After losing 2-0 at home to the defending champions in their season opener last weekend, the Blues are hoping to earn their first points of the new campaign.
Madueke was an unused substitute at Stamford Bridge last time out and will no doubt be hoping to be named in Maresca’s starting XI this afternoon. However, he may have damaged his chances with his antics on social media just hours before kick-off.
Clearly less than impressed by the sights and sounds of Wolverhampton, the forward took to Instagram to express his feelings, writing: ‘Everything about this place is s***’.
It later emerged that Madueke had intended to post on his private Instagram page, rather than his public profile, and the Chelsea man tried to make light of the gaff in a separate message after deleting his initial remark.
‘Damnn wrong Instagram account.. You lot are too fast [laughing emoji, face palm emoji],’ Madueke told his 960,000 followers on the social media platform.
Madueke declared that ‘everything’ about Wolverhampton was ‘s***’
Madueke confirmed that he had intended to post to his private account
Madueke put his hand up for selection as Chelsea got their Europa Conference League campaign off to a winning start on Thursday night.
The former PSV Eindhoven star was named among the substitutes against Swiss outfit Servette but came off the bench to double Chelsea’s lead after Christopher Nkunku’s earlier penalty.
After the 2-0 win, Maresca was unable to give any assurances over Madueke’s future, fuelling speculation that the attacker could be the club’s next big-name departure.
‘I really like Noni, the only problem with him is he has to understand he needs consistency during the week in every training session,’ the Chelsea head coach told reporters at his post-match press conference.
‘But he is a good player and he is doing well with us since we started.’
Asked if he wants the winger to stay, Maresca added: ‘Yes, absolutely.
‘But the problem is, the reality is that until the transfer window is not open, anything can happen. But for sure, Noni is the type of player that I like.’
Maresca encouraged Madueke to put in the hard yards in training to give himself the best possible chance of securing regular playing time.
Pressed on whether he had spoken to Madueke about the fierce competition for minutes at Chelsea, Maresca responded: ‘Yes, we have so many games at the end that if it’s not today it will be the next one, if it’s not the next one, it will be the other one.
‘We have so many games. The important thing is for Noni, I like him, he’s doing well since he started [training with us] the only thing he has to improve is to become consistent every day, every day, every day and work hard and then he will get minutes for sure.’