Success then briefly returned with coach Enzo Maresca, who signed in London in the summer of 2024. Maresca gave Chelsea a footballing identity again, winning the Conference League and the Club World Cup. Six months later he had to leave. Chelsea parted ways with Maresca on New Year’s Day, but the club did not give reasons. Media reports said that the Italian did not feel sufficiently appreciated and demanded more say in transfers.
Given the many costly mistakes, it would have made sense if Chelsea had included him more. But Boehly and his team planned differently. It was said that the relationship between the coach and the club’s management had “completely broken down”. His contract in London actually ran until 2029, three and a half years earlier.
The club presented Liam Rosenior as his successor, who initially received support despite mixed results and should have stayed beyond the summer. One would have thought that Chelsea’s management would have learned to give the coach more time and involve him in squad planning. But a series of defeats later, Rosenior was fired. This means that Chelsea is in a worse place than before the billion-dollar investments. It remains more than doubtful that those responsible for the club’s future will learn the right lessons from the failure of the past months and years.