Chelsea: Winning the Conference League unlikely to heal the rift at Stamford Bridge | OneFootball

There appears a fundamental fracture between manager and supporters over the type of football each want their team play

On Wednesday, he insisted that the fact his side occupied a Champions League position for a good chunk of the campaign, compared to “zero times” in the last two years, stands as proof of their progress since his arrival. Of course, that rather ignores the fact that Chelsea have regressed and now sit sixth.

Should they finish there, or perhaps even lower given the congestion in the European race, it will not matter how many sleeps they spent in a loftier bunk along the way. And indeed, if ever there was a week to crystallise the answer to the enduring hypothetical of Chelsea’s season then this is it.

Since the campaign started, we have asked whether it could be deemed a success were the Blues to win a trophy but fail to qualify for the Champions League. It was a fair question, since silverware is, even in relatively fallow periods, this club’s modern currency and since finishing in the top-four (now five) would have been seen as over-achievement when the season began.

Dissent from fans towards Maresca reached its noisiest peak against Ipswich last weekend

Nigel French/PA Wire

Times and narratives change, though, and the reality now is summed up by the fact that it does not feel like reaching a European semi-final on Thursday will do as much to erase the frustrations of Sunday’s 2-2 draw to Ipswich as would beating Fulham away this coming weekend.

Part of that is circumstantial, of course, with the Blues 3-0 up from the first-leg and already cruising towards the last-four, if not the Conference League trophy at large. But it is also partly the realisation of what Champions League football might do for this project and indeed a manager in need of something meatier than a third-rate trophy on which to hang his reign.

Dissent towards Maresca reached its noisiest peak against Ipswich, with supporters jeering Chelsea dedication to playing out from the back and calling for “attack, attack, attack!" as the relegation-doomed outfit forced themselves into a 2-0 lead.

On Wednesday, the Italian insisted supporters could not be blamed for reacting angrily to players’ mistakes and suggested the onus is on his team to keep the home fans onside.

That rather missed the point, though: fan anger is rooted partly, yes, in what Maresca’s Chelsea are doing badly but also more simply in what they are trying to do in the first place.

The prevailing theory, true or not, is that Chelsea played their best football early in the campaign, before the new manager’s ideas had completely set in, and that the possession-based, ‘Marescaball’ seen since has been a tedious downgrade.

In another indicator of where priorities lie, Maresca’s pre-match press conference on Wednesday spent little time on the European quarter-final ahead and far more on the big picture issues of style and Stamford Bridge sound.

Again, the former Leicester boss launched a staunch defence of his football philosophy. He claimed he is instilling the “right style” and then, in what sounded a worrying echo of Ange Postecoglou’s flawed stubbornness, that it is the only way he knows.

“First of all, 100 per cent,” he said, when asked whether fans could be expected to enjoy watching his side between now and the end of the season. “And then also because I'm not able to do a different kind of style. So, in case, I'm not the one to do a different kind of style.”

Unless either is ready to cede ground, Maresca and the Stamford Bridge crowd may remain on collision course on this issue for some time, and possibly until the end of his regime (there is no indication from the club that that will come this summer, regardless of events between now and then).

There appears a fundamental fracture between manager and spectators over the type of football each want their team play. Increasingly, it feels that winning the Conference League alone will not be enough to heal it.