Where it all went wrong for Enzo Maresca and Chelsea after bombshell exit | OneFootball

Things unravelled very quickly at Stamford Bridge after Italian delivered two trophies and top-four finish in his only full season

Chelsea and Maresca had already become resigned to the feeling that a change was needed and his 18-month tenure would need to end before the club’s Sunday match against Manchester City, where he honed his coaching craft as Pep Guardiola’s apprentice.

Maresca's departure had been brewing for some time. The Italian won both the Conference League and Club World Cup while in charge of Chelsea, which represented the club’s first silverware since Roman Abramovich sold the club to Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly in May 2022.

After those trophy wins, Maresca felt emboldened in his position due to his role in their success, including outcoaching Luis Enrique as Chelsea thrashed Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the Club World Cup final in July. Understandably, he felt he deserved more leverage when it came to decision-making at the club.

But Chelsea’s co-owner Behdad Eghbali and sporting and recruitment team, led by co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, take control of the majority of the club’s running on a day-to-day basis, and lead entirely on recruitment. Maresca, as the season wore on, became increasingly frustrated at his lack of bargaining power.

Maresca felt he deserved more leverage when it came to decision-making at Chelsea

Chelsea’s hierarchy, though, were unmoved to grant him new privileges and unable to turn a blind eye to the deteriorating form as November gave way to December.

Maresca lost his job after only 18 months, six months before he was due to have a detailed two-year review meeting with Chelsea that would ultimately determine whether the club would continue with him at the helm.

Instead, a run of just one win from the last seven Premier League matches and a measly two victories from eight games in December left the Blues 15 points behind leaders Arsenal and prompted those talks to be held early.

Chelsea's form was not good enough, just as two touchline suspensions for Maresca and seven red cards, including one shown to the Italian, have displayed a clear discipline problem at the club. Maresca needed to shoulder some blame for that; Chelsea’s players, however inexperienced, must, too.

Maresca is actively interested in the Manchester City job and there is a possibility that this season will be Guardiola’s last there. He is now free to hold the sort of conversations with City that he is believed to have had on multiple occasions over the past weeks.

Those words were never clarified by Maresca, who repeatedly shut down questions about them at subsequent press conferences. The alarming comments were not only about the Chelsea hierarchy but also about medical advice over how much game time certain injury-prone players should be getting.

On the injury front, Maresca’s luck was not always in. He was unfortunate that Cole Palmer’s groin issue kept resurfacing and he has not undergone surgery. For most of the season, he has had to do without his best player.

Liam Delap has suffered injuries, as have Romeo Lavia and Dario Essugo - the club’s two natural understudies to their best midfielder, Moises Caicedo.

Maresca was unable to use his best centre-back, Levi Colwill, all season because of an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained in the club’s first pre-season training session after returning from their brief summer holidays following the Club World Cup.

Injury woe: Enzo Maresca was without star player Cole Palmer for much of the season

Getty Images

Chelsea’s fanbase were still split on Maresca, even by the end. Plenty felt he was just another unfortunate manager to lose out to Chelsea’s powerful owners, following in the footsteps of Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino.

Others felt he was never going to be the man to restore Chelsea to the top table of English football, despite the two trophies won last term.

Maresca’s decision not to conduct his post-match media duties following boos after Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth raised eyebrows, even when it was claimed to be because he had felt unwell. It gave the impression of a manager cowering away from responsibility.

The club’s injury record this season and extremely youth-tilted recruitment strategy under the current administration are clearly mitigating factors that play a part in explaining how it has ended like this, but they cannot explain away everything.

His staunch defenders will deem him inculpable, but two wins from eight games was a particularly poor return with the players at Maresca's disposal.

By Thursday afternoon, Chelsea were already considering the candidates who could become their new head coach; Maresca thanked for his largely successful stint as manager but now, rather than part of Chelsea’s future, resigned to the club’s history.