Chelsea stars Reece James and Cole Palmer refused to judge whether 2024/25 had been a successful season after winning the UEFA Conference League. The Blues will play Champions League football next campaign and they managed to get their hands on silverware with a comeback win over Real Betis in Poland.
But James was reluctant to say that is enough to constitute success for Chelsea, pointing to Palmer minutes after the final whistle in an interview with TNT Sports and saying: "I'll let you answer that." When the same question was posed to Palmer, he said: "Ask the captain."
Chelsea did enough in the Premier League to return to Europe's top table via the conventional route, finishing fourth after a final-day win at Nottingham Forest. Their strong end to the campaign continued with a 4-1 triumph over Betis which brought Enzo Maresca his first trophy since being appointed 12 months ago.
But with over £1billion spent by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in the transfer market, fans are expecting Chelsea to be fighting it out with the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal for Premier League titles.
And once they take their spot in the Champions League next term, Maresca's deep squad will be tasked with marching through to the knockout stages. Apart from a blip early in the final, Chelsea's Conference League victory came with relative ease.
They breezed through the league phase with an unblemished record and comfortable won all three of their two-legged knockout ties. Abde Ezzalzouli looked to have thrown a spanner in the works with an early strike for Betis in Wroclaw, but Chelsea regrouped at the interval and produced a four-goal barrage in the final half-hour of the game.
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