A couple of days ago some good sources such as Jacob Steinberg and Matt Law wrote that the head coach, Enzo Maresca, may be fired before the big game versus Manchester City on January 4th.
Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that Maresca has indeed been let go.
On top of this, the Blues’ chances of beating Manchester City seem to be extremely low. Winline gives relatively high odds on Chelsea to beat Manchester City. Odds for Manchester City to beat Chelsea are significantly lower. Odds for a draw are somewhere in the middle.
What happened? The club is firing a coach who won the Club World Cup this summer?
Conflict of Maresca with co-owner + dropping results
You cannot say that Maresca restored Chelsea’s status as a major top club. Yes, he was far from perfect — sometimes he spoiled the second half with his substitutions (remember the recent fiasco vs. Aston Villa 1:2).
However, prior to the arrival of Maresca things were way worse than now. When Todd Boehly bought Chelsea, they became the most meme club on Earth. Hundreds of millions down the drain, and okay, if they at least bought some proper superstars like PSG does… but no. They spent £52m on João Félix who already failed at Atlético, and then they can seriously ask themselves why he doesn’t play well in the Premier League. In 2022/23 Chelsea didn’t even make it into any European competition.
Enzo Maresca Chelsea – independent.co.uk
In the middle of this complete chaos Maresca managed to win two trophies — Conference League and the 2025 Club World Cup. Conference was sort of expected minimum, but the CWC gold came as a huge shock to almost all people. Especially cool that in the final they completely destroyed PSG 3:0 — the same PSG that just won the treble.
That was the only final that Luis Enrique lost when managing Paris. He had eight finals total.
For the first time since 2023 Chelsea returned to the Champions League and even started looking scary again. However, Maresca received no trust from the board.Apparently Boehly finally realized that he understands nothing about football
So he gave day-to-day control over the club to co-owner Behdad Eghbali. Apparently Eghbali separated responsibilities:
Apparently Boehly finally realized that he understands nothing about football
So he gave day-to-day control over the club to co-owner Behdad Eghbali. Apparently Eghbali separated responsibilities:
Maresca is only responsible for coaching
Sporting department is responsible for transfers — coach doesn’t participate in transfers
Very American corporate style. Eghbali is of Iranian descent, but studied in California and earned his $4.4 billion in the USA, so he thinks like a regular American businessman.
Problem is — almost no head coach will be satisfied with this kind of system. Manager works closely with players every day and is responsible for results. It’s difficult to accept being judged based on your performance while having almost no say in which tools you use.
Maresca couldn’t agree with Eghbali and after beating Everton 2:0 on December 13th, he was quite harsh and publically expressed his dissatisfaction:
Italian emphasized that these words weren’t addressed to the fans whom he likes. Therefore, they were 100% addressed to the board.
Coach took the dirty laundry out in public… but there was no response. What changed in 2.5 weeks? Simple — results fell apart.
Out of last 9 matches, Chelsea won only twice: Premier League against Everton and League Cup against third-division Cardiff.
In the league Chelsea dropped out of Champions League spots and are currently fifth. Two points behind fourth-placed Liverpool. Leaders Arsenal are already 15 points ahead.
Defence is in shambles — two goals conceded in each of the last three matches. With Haaland (top current scorer) on Manchester City, it could be even worse. Guardiola’s side scored 3 or more in 5 of their last six league games.
Winline offers some nice odds on City scoring 3+ goals against Chelsea.
Disagreements + bad results = Today, January 1st, Chelsea directors meet to determine Maresca’s fate.
Liam Rosenior – ligue1.com
If he is let go — who replaces him? There is already one major candidate
According to Sky Sports, the new head coach could be Englishman Liam Rosenior. The 41-year-old is currently the coach of Strasbourg.
Strasbourg is essentially Chelsea’s younger brother — both clubs are owned by BlueCo, Todd Boehly’s company. Young Chelsea players often get loaned to France. So moving Rosenior up would be a natural promotion to the main team.
Also, he does relatively well. Compared to last season Strasbourg hasn’t fallen off — still seventh. And in Conference League they collected 16 points out of 18, finished first in the league phase and made it to the round of 16.
Of course, appointing Rosenior seems risky. Chelsea was already burned by Graham Potter, who came from Brighton. Although, you can also argue that Maresca came to Chelsea straight from the Championship with Leicester — and although he fails here, he has done quite well here overall.
