Three major clubs fired their managers this month, during January. Real Madrid fired manager Alonso on January 2nd; Man United fired manager Amorim on Janurary 2nd; and Chelsea fired manager Maressa on January 1st.
At face value, there appears to be little in common among the firings of these three coaches. For example, Alonso attempted to build the team through a systematic style of play and he was met with resistance from the star players on the team. On the other hand, Maressa built a relationship with the younger players on the team.
While each situation is unique, there is more to the firings of these three coaches than meets the eye. What is larger than their differing situations is the excessive expectations being placed upon them by the boards of each club. This isn’t a new trend, but rather it is showing itself to be one of the largest factors in the firings of these three coaches.
Maressa, the victim of an internal battle for control of Chelsea by the co-owners
Enzo Maresca, 2025 FIFA Club World Cup – amny.com
No one seriously believes that Maressa was performing at an acceptable level. Even though Chelsea’s performance in December was horrible, Maressa improved the team to the point that they were able to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in two years. Prior to his arrival, Chelsea had won a few trophies including the Conference League and the Club World Cup. At the time of his firing, Chelsea was ranked 5th in the Premier League standings, and likely would have qualified directly for the 2024/25 Champions League group stage. According to inside sources, Maressa was a casualty of the internal battle for control of Chelsea between Boehly and Eghbali. Eghbali, who had never supported Maressa, brought in his own man to replace him.
Amorim and the worst possible circumstances
The situation is quite different with Amorim. However, the initial circumstances were the toughest for any of the coaches mentioned. Man United is the most troubled top club in Europe today, and while some progress was made under Amorim, the team was still only 6th in the league and 1 point behind Chelsea (who were 5th) in the top-5 based on goal difference. To put it another way, Man United was literally on the cusp of qualifying for the Champions League.
Alonso and the “nearly” title winning pace
Then there is Alonso. Alonso’s firing followed a loss to Barcelona. Many of those who watched the Super Cup Final saw how evenly matched the teams were. The fact that Real Madrid did not score in stoppage time (thanks to a few miracles) after having several clear-cut scoring opportunities on the counterattack made it appear as though Madrid could easily have tied the game in the dying moments. Madrid’s current league position is fine as well. While everyone is talking about the 4 point deficit to Barcelona, Madrid has 45 points after the first half of the season. If the team maintains that pace for the entire season, they would finish the year with 90 points, which would have been enough to win the title in 6 out of the past 7 La Liga seasons.
Xabi Alonso and Florentino Perez – realmadrid.com
Results are all that matter…are they?
Football likes to remind us that results are all that truly matter. However, this is not always the case. A team may be going in the right direction, but the board may never be satisfied. The Chelsea and Manchester United bosses wanted their respective coaches to show greater loyalty. While neither Amorim nor Maressa made statements that were anywhere near as harsh as Conte made at Tottenham, Amorim said something that could be seen as lacking in corporate etiquette, and Maressa simply requested that one of the co-owners provide him with more support.
In the end, the job security of these coaches is questionable. Each coach was provided with inadequate working conditions from the start and ultimately fired due to conflicts that were created by the board themselves. Did Real Madrid not realize that Alonso would shift the team toward a more systematic style of play? Did United not know that Amorim would require players to fit a back-three system? Could Chelsea not have trusted Maressa more and allowed him to continue the successful job that the other co-owner had hired him to do?
As always, one can say that “we’re a large club — first place or else”. However, many times these expectations do not match reality and are merely populist rhetoric. And, many times, fans are not buying what they are selling. One only needs to listen to what Chelsea fans were chanting at the last match, and where exactly they directed Eghbali to go.
Behdad Eghbali – bloomberg.com
Unrealistic Expectations. Again.
Recently, they announced that Rahimov left Rubin. Rubin sits 7th in the RPL and has the 7th most valuable team in the league (valued at approximately $50.45 million). Zenit, Spartak, Krasnodar, CSKA, Lokomotiv, and Dynamo all have teams valued at twice the amount (approximately $100+ million) of Rubin’s team. Some people are seriously claiming that Rubin’s objective should be to finish in the top-3. Based on our understanding, the actual reason Rahimov was let go has absolutely nothing to do with the team’s performance and everything to do with his disagreements with the board.
