Only one success in the last seven matches for the Blues, with the Italian manager – in the sights of the fans – under pressure after the draw against Bournemouth in the last round of the championship
Enzo Maresca may not be on the Chelsea bench on Sunday, in Manchester against City. It is an eventuality that was not even considered until Tuesday morning and which is becoming increasingly relevant, after the situation between the only Italian manager of the 2025-26 Premier League and the Blues quickly deteriorated following the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth in the last round of the championship. In the Stamford Bridge changing rooms, after the match, there would have been the last straw that broke the back of an already full of tension camel. The club has scheduled a high-level meeting today to discuss the situation of the coach, who is under contract for another three seasons, but Maresca himself is apparently reflecting on his future, trying to understand if the situation is still sustainable, whether or not Chelsea is still the right club for him. The situation is so rapidly evolving that a resolution should arrive within the day.
WHAT HAPPENED
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The tension between Chelsea and Maresca has been going on for a while, made public by the manager’s comments on his “worst 48 hours since I have been at this club” made after the mid-December victory over Everton, the only one of the last 7 Premier League matches. That comment, addressed mainly to Behdad Eghbali, the key shareholder who currently has the management of Chelsea in his hands, underlined a difference of views, both on how ready the youngest team in the Premier League is to compete to win the championship and the Champions League, and on the general management of a club trapped between its glorious past (the Abramovich era) and a present in which the idea is to round up some of the best youngsters in Europe at any cost and try to win with them. In the three and a half seasons of the new management, Maresca is the only one to have succeeded: last season he won the Conference League and brought the youngest squad in the history of the Premier League to fourth place and a return to the Champions League, which the new ownership had never achieved; in the summer the Blues won the Club World Cup, a trophy which also brought a fantastic economic return, which remains one of the objectives of this management. In Eghbali’s vision, the current Chelsea, despite having only Cole Palmer in their squad as a true champion (the 23-year-old has played just 500 minutes of Premier League football this season, spread over 9 games), has everything it needs to win straight away. In Maresca’s version, the youngest team in the 2025-26 Premier League, one that has invested a lot but to take players from work in progress and not from finished products, needs time to do so, a concept that no one from the club has ever communicated to the fans.
THE SITUATION
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Last night Chelsea leaked to the English newspapers their discontent with the latest results and the idea that Maresca had until the end of January to improve the situation. An important month, opened by the match against City in the Premier League but containing matches such as the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal or the last two Champions League matches, including the away match in Naples, with the idea that the Blues belong in a place in the top 8. This sort of ultimatum, which would have been communicated to the manager in the dressing room after Tuesday’s draw with Bournemouth, would not have pleased Maresca, who would have responded by saying that he himself was meditating on his future and on a clash of views with the club has become unsustainable for him. Both sides have taken time to reflect, but the verdict is expected today. And the clouds gathering over Cobham seem increasingly black.
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