CALUM McFarlane has downplayed feeling daunting nerves as he faces tough first game as Chelsea caretaker manager.
The Under-21 boss, who only joined the West Londoners from Southampton in the summer, will be in the first-team dugout for the first time after Enzo Maresca departed from his post on New Year’s Day.
Under McFarlane, the academy team currently sit fourth in the Premier League 2, with six wins and three defeats from nine games.
He was also formerly of Manchester City’s youth setup for fours years, where he met Chelsea’s current recruiter of talent, Joe Shields, plus the academy technical director, Glenn van de Kraan.
Coming up against a man with 1011 games as manager under his belt and regarded by some as the best of all time in Pep Guardiola, McFarlane would be excused for feeling the pressure, but he insists this isn’t the case.
He said: “it’s understandable that it would be pretty daunting. I’m quite relaxed about it if I’m honest. I’m sure as I get closer to the game it will become maybe more nerve-wracking, more daunting but I haven’t worked at this level before of course and like I said the lads today were brilliant and it fills you with confidence that we’re all in it together and it’s a team effort.
“I don’t feel famous or other than a few other text messages that we’d usually get but it honestly doesn’t feel any different. I’m just focused on coming in every day, preparing the team as best we can for a positive result but it obviously doesn’t feel any different.”
As if the Blues’ task going away at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday wasn’t already hard enough, they will be without star midfielder Moises Caicedo, after the Ecuadorian picked up his fifth yellow card of the season against Bournemouth.
Marc Cucurella may also be set to miss the clash after being absent from the previous game, but did manage to appear in training this week.
McFarlane gave an update: “Yeah, that is positive [to see him training again]. We’re undecided on that so I don’t really have the full information on that as of yet. I’m sure it will come out in the next couple of days.
As well as Maresca leaving the club, most of his background staff, including former Blues ‘keeper Willy Caballero, have also departed.
Bernardo Cueva, who joined from Brentford in 2024 for a fee of £1m, is the only survivor.
McFarlane confirmed his coaching team for the match: “From the Under-21 staff we have myself, Andy Ross and James Simmonds who are my assistants with the Under-21s. We also have Adam Keith, who’s the analyst with the Under-21s as well. Bernardo [Cueva] is still here, the set-piece coach. That will be the main part of our technical team for Sunday.”