Enzo Maresca insists he will ‘slowly’ give more playing time to Estevao after Chelsea’s 3-0 win against Wolves.
The Chelsea managed faced criticism from supporters on Saturday night over his decision not to start the 18-year-old following his man-of-the-match display against Qarabag in the Champions League earlier this week.
Estevao was introduced as a substitute in the 64th minute against Wolves after Malo Gusto had put the hosts in front at Stamford Bridge and the Brazilian winger immediately provided the cross for Joao Pedro’s goal.
Pedro Neto then struck to complete the victory which has put Chelsea second in the Premier League and six points behind leaders Arsenal.
After Chelsea’s win, Maresca was informed that a data company is already valuing Estevao at £100 million. When asked for his verdict, Maresca replied: ‘Yeah, you can see that, absolutely.
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‘His talent is top. Again, we are trying to help him adapt and give him the right minutes, and he’s doing fantastic.
‘He will be for this club, in the next five or ten years, a top, top player.’
Asked if it is proving difficult to stop the hype surrounding Estevao, Maresca said: ‘Absolutely, yes.
‘I said already twice the reason why fans pay tickets is because they want to see players like Estevao and like Cole [Palmer] because people are happy when they are on the pitch.
‘The only difference is Estevao arrived from Brazil, he needs to adapt a little bit.
‘Slowly, slowly, he’s going to start games for us in the future.
‘I was very worried before this game because they are the worst games, they are tricky games because everyone is thinking it’s going to be easy. I can understand first half people were not happy because we didn’t score, not because of the performance, to be honest.
‘And then when Estevao was on the pitch the energy raised because people loved that kind of player, so we are happy he can help the team and the fans can be happy.’
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