Vesper

Romano is now officially a rumour clown, has been for months: Chelsea are interested in signing the Aston Villa midfielder Morgan Rogers, and they would be prepared to spend €150 million on him. (Fichajes) Chelsea are interested in signing the Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali. (Football Insider) Chelsea are prepared to proceed with the club-record move to sign the Real Madrid superstar, Vinicius Junior. (Fichajes)

Forget managers – it’s the flawed strategy of Chelsea’s owners that is the problem https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6935334/2026/01/03/forget-managers-its-the-muddled-strategy-of-chelseas-owners-that-is-the-problem/ During Chelsea’s turbulent golden era under Roman Abramovich’s ownership, those who worked at Stamford Bridge learned to recognise the tell-tale signs. In seasons when results suffered, usually around November or December, a Siberian chill took hold of the place and the Russian billionaire’s inscrutable poker face was replaced by a frozen scowl. The death mask, some of those who worked under him used to call it. Jose Mourinho, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo, Mourinho again, Antonio Conte, Maurizio Sarri, Frank Lampard… no coach survived for long once the death mask was on show. Well, at least one tradition of the previous regime is being maintained at Stamford Bridge. In three and a half years since Abramovich was compelled to sell Chelsea to the BlueCo consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s Behdad Eghbali, the club has continued to burn through coaches: Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Lampard again (a brief spell as interim), Mauricio Pochettino and now Enzo Maresca. In some ways, Maresca’s departure carries echoes of the Abramovich era: the speed with which the whole thing unravelled from a relatively promising position a month ago, the decline of relationships behind the scenes mirrored by a sharp downturn in results on the pitch; the way that, by the end, it felt like a departure by mutual contempt. Trophies were not enough to save Enzo Maresca at ChelseaRichard Heathcote/Getty Images But there is a critical difference. Abramovich fixated on trophies to the exclusion of all else — which caused problems when it came to creating the conditions for sustained dominance of the type Manchester City have enjoyed. BlueCo, by sharp contrast, appear fixated on player trading to the exclusion of all else, as if their transfer strategy is not a means to an end, but an end in itself. The Abramovich model was a long way from perfect, but it was attractive to elite-level coaches even if, ultimately, they knew they were only ever one bad month from the sack. The BlueCo model? The last four head coaches (including Lampard) were all hired partly on the basis of their willingness to work within a structure and strategy that Chelsea recognise would not suit every candidate. So what does it say that coaches as relatively mild-mannered as Potter, Lampard and Pochettino were all left exasperated, and that, judging by the noises coming out of Chelsea over the past 24 hours, Maresca and the hierarchy ended up driving each other to distraction? What You Should Read Next Enzo Maresca leaves Chelsea: The only possible outcome for an increasingly unhappy marriage? Three weeks after being named Premier League Manager of the Month, Maresca is gone, but the cracks have been visible for longer In the rush to control the narrative surrounding Maresca’s departure, there has been the usual flurry of briefings and counter-briefings, claims and counter-claims. Much of it has centred around the fallout from Maresca’s disclosure to the Chelsea hierarchy, as revealed by The Athletic last month, that he had spoken to people associated with Manchester City about his potential candidacy to succeed Pep Guardiola when the time comes. Sources close to Maresca have suggested he wished to extend his contract, but some of the details that have emerged might lessen the inclination among some Chelsea fans, disillusioned with the club’s ownership, to make a martyr of their departed coach. There are two sides to the story, but it hardly reflects well on this strange Chelsea project that, in the view of the club’s hierarchy, Maresca wanted out — and not because he sensed which way the wind was blowing, but because they felt his head had been turned by potential openings elsewhere. Your head would be turned, wouldn’t it? Because Manchester City’s ambitions are clear, just like Chelsea’s were under Abramovich (even when their vision was not). Transfer expenditure is often cited as the barometer of a club’s ambition, but Chelsea, under BlueCo, have spent enormously without giving the impression that the aim is to win the Premier League or Champions League any time soon. To anyone who has watched them regularly over the past three years, it has been obvious what is holding Chelsea back. Lampard’s feedback to the club after his interim spell in 2023 was that while there was talent in the squad, there was also a glaring lack of experience, resilience and know-how. Potter, Pochettino and Maresca, at different times, have voiced similar concerns. Frank Lampard had concerns over Chelsea’s squad profileWarren Little/Getty Images Over the past two-and-a-half seasons, Chelsea have regularly fielded the youngest line-ups in the Premier League. This is continually portrayed as a good thing — almost as if it were a trophy in itself — even if, studying their results and performances over that period, you would be forgiven for concluding otherwise. A young team ended last season on a real high, securing fourth place in the Premier League and then winning the Conference League and the Club World Cup. Inside Stamford Bridge, it was seen a spectacular endorsement of the BlueCo strategy. The club’s sporting directors, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, were rewarded with six-year contracts, as was co-director of recruitment Joe Shields and director of global recruitment Sam Jewell. But to many of us, the BlueCo strategy is bewildering. Not because, as some at Chelsea would have it, the concept is so brilliantly innovative that it is beyond our tiny minds, but because they have spent around £1.5billion ($2bn) in the transfer market over the past three and a half years (recouping around £800m in sales) to build a squad that, despite some notable results, remains well short when it comes to competing in the Premier League. The endless hedging of bets on young talent has looked like a distraction from the serious business of building a strong team. They can reel off some obvious successes, such as Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo and the wonderfully gifted Brazilian teenager Estevao. They can even cite, for example, the signings of Noni Madueke, Renato Veiga, Djordje Petrovic and Omari Hutchinson, who were sold for handsome profits. But the number of signings that have elevated Chelsea on the pitch — as opposed to offering black ink on a balance sheet — is alarmingly small. And yet the club appear resolutely committed to continuing on that path, convinced that their recruitment strategy is wonderful and that the only thing holding them back is the ingratitude of coaches who get ideas above their station. There have been times this season when it has been possible to imagine that a young Chelsea team might be about to come of age. The 3-0 win over Barcelona in the Champions League in late November was every bit as emphatic as the scoreline suggested. The 1-0 victory at Tottenham Hotspur a few weeks earlier was one of the best all-round team performances of this Premier League campaign. The spirit and intelligence they showed in drawing 1-1 with leaders Arsenal, having had Caicedo sent off in the first half, was highly impressive. So, too, was the way they rallied with a makeshift defence to beat Liverpool 2-1 and came from 2-0 down to force a 2-2 draw at Newcastle just a fortnight ago. But these high points have been interspersed by frequent and entirely predictable reminders of the concerns successive coaches have raised about a squad built with so little regard for the value of experience. Clubs whose entire business model is based around developing players for resale can afford to commit as much money and playing time as Chelsea did, for example, to Madueke and Nicolas Jackson after signing them in 2023. But when, having persisted with those raw young recruits through two years of growing pains, the strategy involves offloading them at the first opportunity — Madueke sold to Arsenal, Jackson loaned to Bayern Munich — and replacing them with another cluster of ‘project’ players, such as Alejandro Garnacho, Jamie Gittens and Liam Delap, it invites questions about a) the purpose of this whole exercise and b) what, beyond continuing inconsistency, Chelsea expected of Maresca and his team this season. One of the criticisms levelled at the Italian over the past 24 hours concerned the number of Premier League points dropped from winning positions this season, particularly the defeats at home to Brighton, Sunderland and Aston Villa. Another is the number of silly yellow and red cards. But is this not par for the course for a young, inexperienced team, led by an inexperienced coach? Are certain deficiencies not to be expected in both penalty areas when Chelsea, despite spending more money than any club in world football over the past three and a half years, have appeared unconvinced by the need to sign a top-class goalkeeper, central defender, or centre-forward? Moises Caicedo earns another yellow cardGlyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images This is not a lament for Maresca. At times, his own lack of experience — appointed after 67 games as a head coach, 53 of them with Leicester City in England’s second-tier Championship — was as evident as that of his team. He was a ‘project’ appointment who was required to learn on the job if he was to fulfil the potential that Winstanley and Stewart identified in him. He came up trumps last season in the end, but there was a prolonged period in the first few months of 2025 when he was really struggling to find a way forward. When The Athletic revealed Manchester City’s interest in Maresca last month, as a contingency plan for when Guardiola steps down, the immediate reaction among many was surprise. He is a talented coach, certainly, but one who seemed as likely to be beaten by the Chelsea conundrum as to take the club to the next level. And so it has proved. It had always felt rather two steps forward, one step back. Or, given the streaky nature of their results, five steps forward, four steps back. He did seem to be learning, though. His authority had never been higher than it was five weeks ago, when the excellent win over Barcelona was followed by that spirited and tactically accomplished performance against Arsenal. And if his response was to start making power-plays behind the scenes, then, yes, that was always going to backfire unless it was accompanied by an improvement in results — rather than, as it transpired, the exact opposite. What next? It has been intriguing to learn of the possibility that Chelsea might turn to Liam Rosenior, the 41-year-old coach of Strasbourg, also owned by BlueCo. Rosenior is intelligent and innovative, among the brightest of a new wave of British coaches. But, as with Maresca in the summer of 2024, it would be hard to escape the feeling that this would be another of those “long-term” investments unlikely to be given the time to mature at a club where coaches are always on borrowed time. (As an aside, what kind of message would hiring Rosenior send out to Strasbourg, whose supporters are already highly sceptical of BlueCo?) What You Should Read Next Liam Rosenior interview: ‘If you have multicultural staff, you improve your players so much quicker’ The Strasbourg head coach speaks on The Athletic FC podcast about coaching, empathy and diversity. Maresca’s tenure lasted longer than many expected — longer than Pochettino, longer than Potter, certainly longer than Tuchel lasted under BlueCo’s ownership — but it was still another appointment that fizzled out inside 18 months at a club where players and indeed sporting directors are secured to staggeringly long deals but coaches are regarded as expendable. BlueCo would describe themselves as strategic, working to a long-term vision that would have been alien to the club’s previous regime. But it has been three and a half years, with an extraordinary amount of money lavished on an extraordinary number of players, and Chelsea are 15 points off the top of the Premier League at the halfway stage. Fifth place in the table looks reasonable at first glance, but points-wise, they are as close to 16th-place Leeds United as to third-placed Aston Villa. There will be a temptation, internally, to pin that on the man who has just left the building. But when it comes down to it, it isn’t about Maresca. It isn’t about a run of one win in the last seven Premier League games. It isn’t really about heads being turned or relationships unravelling or the various micro-issues that underlined a growing state of dysfunction in recent weeks. It’s about a project that requires a level of faith that the decision-makers’ record over the past three and a half years cannot be said to warrant. And at Chelsea of all clubs, that is a problem. Abramovich always saw managerial changes as a form of shock therapy, a desperate attempt to shake up a complacent dressing room and ensure the season would end with Champions League qualification and another trophy or two in the cabinet (and, in the short term, it often worked). In that context, the sense of drift under BlueCo’s ownership feels so much more acute. By Oliver Kay Football Writer

which is why I have little to no faith they will drop around £2 billion or so on a new stadium now that we are soon 4 years into their run

Calum McFarlane press conference pre-Manchester City vs Chelsea - FULL video

I was listing him as a possible manager candidate years ago when he was still at Braga (2017-2019) in Portugal.

It's not leftfield. He has been the best club manager in South America for several years. He knows Estevao like the back of hid hand as well.

good job tracking m8! let's list who is still left on the board (some of these are wild longshots, but I do rate them as managers and thsi list is meant to be maximal) some of these cannot or would not come untip after the World Cup Xavi Simone Inzaghi Unai Emery Hansi Flick (IF sacked) Xabi Alonso (IF sacked) Luis Enrique (pipe dream) Thomas Tuchel (lol, what can I say, I do rate him) Carlo Ancelotti Diego Simeone Lionel Scaloni Gian Piero Gasperini Julian Nagelsmann Didier Deschamps Abel Ferreira Laurent Blanc Niko Kovač Marco Silva Fabian Hurzeler (lol, he is at Brighton, so will be in the mix due to our BHA obsession) Sérgio Conceição Dino Toppmöller Thiago Motta Roger Schmidt Joachim Löw and of course, the frontrunner................ Liam Rosenior

BOMBA Chelsea! IT’S OVER! WHO AFTER MARESCA? WHY ENZO LEAVES? Fabrizio Romano

They will offer to pay no loan fee and only £50K PW of his 325K PW salary. Lololol

Manager with insane 84.62% win record not interested in Chelsea job https://www.caughtoffside.com/2026/01/01/francesco-farioli-Chelsea-manager/ Chelsea may reportedly struggle to land a replacement for Enzo Maresca as one exciting candidate is not interested in the job. The manager in question is Porto head coach Francesco Farioli, who is not currently keen on moving to the Premier League, and particularly to Chelsea’s current project. That’s according to a report from Portuguese outlet O Jogo, which also states that Farioli has a €15m buy-out clause in his contract. Porto fans will certainly be glad to hear that the talented young Italian tactician is keen to stay, as he boasts a hugely impressive 84.62% win record with the club.

Our new stadium: Biggest circus needs the biggest tent:

I predict they will hire Francesco Farioli

Chelsea part ways with Enzo Maresca with immediate effect https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6933487/2026/01/01/Chelsea-enzo-maresca-leaves/ Chelsea and head coach Enzo Maresca have parted ways with immediate effect less than two years into his contract. The Athletic reported on Thursday that the club’s board were to meet that day to discuss Maresca’s future, with Chelsea winless in their past three games. The Italian had been on a five-year deal through to 2029. A club statement on Thursday confirming his departure read: “Chelsea Football Club and head coach Enzo Maresca have parted company. “During his time at the club, Enzo led the team to success in the UEFA Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup. Those achievements will remain an important part of the Club’s recent history, and we thank him for his contributions to the club. “With key objectives still to play for across four competitions including qualification for Champions League football, Enzo and the club believe a change gives the team the best chance of getting the season back on track. “We wish Enzo well for the future.” Maresca was the Premier League’s manager of the month in November but sparked uncertainty over his future with comments following their win against Everton on December 13 that the previous 48 hours had been his “worst since I joined the club, because many people didn’t support us”. The Athletic revealed days after the comments that the head coach is high among the candidates Manchester City are considering in the event of Pep Guardiola leaving the Etihad Stadium next summer. The Catalan is under contract until 2027 with City clear they have no managerial vacancy. Sources briefed on the matter not authorised to speak publicly indicate Maresca informed Chelsea — twice in late October and again in mid-December — that he was talking to people associated to City about his candidacy for the managerial position if and when a future vacancy arises. This was something he was contractually obliged to do in relation to talks with any other club. The two teams meet each other in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday and it remains to be seen who will be in charge for Chelsea following Maresca’s departure. What You Should Read Next Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca high on Manchester City’s list in event of Pep Guardiola exit City are advancing contingency planning as there is a growing anticipation of this being the Catalan manager's last season. Liam Rosenior, who has impressed at fellow BlueCo club Strasbourg, is expected to be among the candidates considered as a successor but Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner is not in the frame. The situation has come to a head following Tuesday evening’s draw with Bournemouth, a third game without a win and one which saw Maresca and his side booed off at full-time at Stamford Bridge. The club remain firmly behind the approach installed following the takeover by the Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly consortium in 2022 with the next head coach expected to fit into it and quickly stabilise and improve results. Maresca was appointed by Chelsea in June 2024, the sixth manager since Roman Abramovich’s exit. He joined the London club off the back of guiding Leicester City to the Championship title and automatic promotion to the top flight at the first attempt. In his first season at Stamford Bridge, Maresca won the Conference League and the newly-expanded Club World Cup. Chelsea sit fifth in the Premier League, 15 points behind leaders Arsenal and only five points above 14th-placed Brighton & Hove Albion. What You Should Read Next Enzo Maresca leaves Chelsea: The only possible outcome for an increasingly unhappy marriage? Three weeks after being named Premier League Manager of the Month, Maresca is gone, but the cracks have been visible for longer ‘The speed of Maresca’s departure is shocking’ Analysis by Chelsea correspondent Simon Johnson Even by Chelsea’s standards, this is extraordinary. On December 12, Enzo Maresca was named Barclays Manager of the Month for November. Three weeks later, he is gone. The speed of Maresca’s departure at Stamford Bridge is pretty shocking. It was only in late November that Maresca engineered one of the most impressive wins of his tenure — a 3-0 victory over Barcelona in the Champions League. Five days later and Chelsea sent out a statement that they might be title contenders by securing a 1-1 draw with Arsenal, despite being down to 10 men for nearly an hour due to Moises Caicedo’s first-half red card. They were third in the Premier League, just six points behind their London rivals. Now they are a further nine points off the league leaders and making another change in the dugout. This is a situation that was not in Chelsea’s plans and could have major ramifications for their season. This month alone, they have nine games in all four competitions, and confidence is already low after a run of two wins from their previous nine fixtures. Chelsea had always intended to review how the club was progressing, including Maresca’s performance, at the end of the season, his second in charge. This was still the case earlier this week. For the Italian to go with so much left to play for emphasises the extent to which things have broken down. By David Ornstein and Simon Johnson

Glasner out of the running per Ornstein

we are truly BlueCo Clown Car FC

it is official Maresca is gone Chelsea Football Club and Head Coach Enzo Maresca have parted company. https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/club-statement-enzo-maresca During his time at the Club, Enzo led the team to success in the UEFA Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup. Those achievements will remain an important part of the Club’s recent history, and we thank him for his contributions to the Club. With key objectives still to play for across four competitions including qualification for Champions League football, Enzo and the Club believe a change gives the team the best chance of getting the season back on track. We wish Enzo well for the future.

IF the board hires a really bad choice as the new manager we well could see the end of any major chance for winning the league and other big trophies for perhaps a decade or so if the new manager is absolute shite, all our biggest players will demand to leave, maybe even Reece also, we still have no shirt sponsor (major loss of revenue for years now) and the stadium issue looks to not be fully done and resolved until the mid to late 2030s or even later (massive loss of revenue)

Klopp (number 1 choice, but hard as fuck pull) Zidane (number 2 choice but just as hard a pull as Klopp) Xavi Simone Inzaghi Unai Emery (would likely not leave Villa until summer) wild card/dice roll: Cesc and 2 who I would deffo be happy with IF either are sacked by Real and/or Barca and we hired them (Xabi Alonso and Hansi Flick)

Chelsea Could Now Appoint Shock Manager With Enzo Maresca Expected to Leave Today https://www.givemesport.com/Chelsea-could-now-appoint-shock-manager-with-enzo-maresca-expected-to-leave-club-today/ Enzo Maresca is ‘highly likely’ to leave Chelsea on Thursday (January 1) after a ‘complete breakdown in his relationship with the club’. This is according to a shock report from The Guardian, who understand that emergency talks are being held over the Italian manager’s position at Stamford Bridge. Maresca is no longer expected to be in charge for Chelsea’s upcoming Premier League clash against Manchester City on Sunday. Sources have indicated to The Guardian that Maresca wants to leave the Blues, although it’s unclear if he is willing to walk away without a payoff. Chelsea currently sit fifth in the Premier League table, 15 points behind leaders Arsenal, but December’s results have put Maresca under increased pressure. The west London outfit have won just one of the previous seven league matches. Maresca, 45, was appointed by Chelsea in June 2024, replacing Mauricio Pochettino at Stamford Bridge. The former Italy Under-21 international, who played for the likes of West Brom, Juventus, Fiorentina and Sevilla during his playing career got the Chelsea job after guiding Leicester City to the Championship title. While Maresca has enjoyed success at Chelsea - winning the UEFA Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup titles - it appears the breakdown in relations between him and the club’s hierarchy will lead to his imminent departure. Early Contenders to Replace Maresca at Chelsea It’s currently unclear who will replace Maresca if the Italian does leave, although The Guardian say that ‘one solution’ would be to appoint Liam Rosenior - the current Strasbourg head coach. The 41-year-old Englishman, who spent most of his professional playing career with Hull City before managing the Tigers between 2022-2024, may jump at the opportunity to coach one of the Premier League’s biggest clubs. Rosenior has impressed at Strasbourg, who are Chelsea’s partner club, although his potential appointment will depend on whether his current employers are able to find a quality replacement now. Other names that currently among the bookmakers’ favourites include Como boss Cesc Fabregas, Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner and Barcelona legend Xavi Hernandez. In any case, it feels increasingly likely that Chelsea will now be on the hunt for their fifth permanent manager since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital completed their takeover of the club in 2022.

Who are your choices to replace him?

Every word Willy Caballero said What did you make of that display? You’ve dropped more points from a winning position. What were you pushing for at the end? Well, as I said previously, it’s a difficult start but we have to deal with that now, we have to improve that and we go the next couple of games and also the whole second half to improve that. In another view, it means that we are creating, we are scoring goals and we are opening the scoring sometimes, which is good, but we need to manage and find a way to win those points, kill those games because they are the games that we are going to need to achieve our target. It’s not one thing that’s the problem, it’s kind of in some games it’s maybe not taking the chances, in other games maybe defensive mistakes, is it? Yeah, it’s part of it, it’s what happens in any single game. Sometimes it’s details, sometimes it’s because the opponent finds a way to break through or to create those chances, but we need to create that kind of, not create, we need to find that kind of mentality to not let them find a way to make us lose those kind of games because we invest a lot. Today it was a really good game in terms of playing, how we played, how we went to the other box. We created many chances and unfortunately we are talking more about that stats than how players like Estevao [played], like Cole [played] so it’s like that. Could you just clarify what’s happened to Enzo Maresca? Yes, he didn’t feel well the last two days, he had a bit of a temperature two days ago, he did the last two sessions because he wanted to prepare well the team for this game, but after the game he went to the changing room and he asked me to replace him because he didn’t feel well and that’s the only thing I can tell you guys. The decision to take Palmer off was booed. Do supporters need to show more faith in the manager? Of course any supporter wants to have their best players on the pitch and we want to have the best players on the pitch as well, but Cole is coming from a long injury so in this case we need to find the right substitutions to go for the game and also to take care of the health of our players because we want to have them for the long period and for the rest of the season in every single game. Moises Caicedo is now suspended for the Manchester City trip, how frustrated are you with that suspension? Very frustrated because it was the first foul on the game and it was close to us, and we looked at the foul more than once and it doesn’t look like a yellow. But it’s done now so we’re going to miss a very important player but we need to, from now on, start to think who will be the player that replaces Moi and of course it’s a big loss but same as when we miss Cole, when we miss Liam [Delap], when we miss any player because all of them are very important for us. Will you be in charge for the Manchester City game or are you expecting Enzo to be back? I don’t know, I just want to wish for the recovery of Enzo and I believe in one or two days he will be okay. You’re obviously very close with Enzo, how is he handling this difficult run and secondly, in January there are nine games, four competitions, do you guys have to see this as an opportunity to turn it around? Yes of course, first of all he’s dealing well because he’s very professional, he invests a lot of hours every single day even though the last two days he was feeling bad. He is an example for me, for all of the staff and yes we got the same amount of number of games in December and we didn’t do it as we expected so we go now January to start the year for us as a target to improve and to start to find the points that can make us achieve our targets. You’ve conceded four goals now from long throws this season which is the joint worst in the league, why do you think it’s become such an issue this season? It’s such an issue because now every single game and every other team has got not just one, sometimes two or three players that can deliver a very long throw. It means that all of the other teams invest a lot in long throws and they create many set pieces about that and it just gives us information that we have to deal quickly because we need to improve in any set pieces. We are unlucky to have [conceded] these four goals [from long throws], probably the day of the Brentford it hurts a lot because it was in the last second and we could have two more points. Today, two in the same way it hurts so we need to correct that and we need to improve because there are many things that happen there. Sometimes it’s how they move, how they go for the first contact but even though the second goal today was a deflection from our own players so there are many details that sometimes are very difficult to deal with in that scenario.

we had 4 massive, clear weaknesses only GKer has sort of been fixed a bit, and that is NOT due to a new buy, it is only due to Sanchez finally becoming somewhat acceptable the other 3 CF CB LW we are just rat-fucked at plus glassman Lavia has destroyed our class MF depth

Sources: Enzo Maresca under IMMENSE pressure Also in here - Clearlake vs Todd, What new manager would replace Maresca? Would fan protests help? https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/sources-enzo-maresca-under-immense I’ve been asked about this of course off the back of Chelsea’s awful recent form. I’ve always been told and heard that Chelsea want to avoid a mid-season change of manager, and that is still the case. That is what they ideally want to do. They want to review Enzo Maresca, as well as the sporting directors, in the summer, and then make any big changes or decisions. However, I’ve heard about Maresca now being under IMMENSE pressure from the Chelsea board following our form throughout December, having only won one game out of our last seven league games. It’s been deemed far from good enough, and Chelsea are having a serious look at Maresca. This isn’t just from poor results and form. The way Maresca has been acting and his comments in public has caused some puzzled and annoyed reactions from those at the very top of the club. And when they are already seeing Maresca as a manager under pressure, this has only added fuel to the fire. There are real issues between some on the board, and Maresca. There is a belief that the Italian coach has eyes on another role in the summer, and that is distracting him. My top SPTC Source told me that Maresca was ‘on thin ice’ before the Bournemouth game and it would be worse if he didn’t win it. At this moment, we don’t know what a draw means in the grand scheme of that, but at this point in time (Wednesday 7am), we haven’t yet heard that they are about to pull the tigger, just that the pressure has mounted up massively on Maresca. Having said that, it’s my personal feeling that I’d not be at all surprised if we see a ‘club statement’ post from Chelsea some time very soon. Clearlake and Todd So, how is the relationship here? Well, Behdad Eghbali is the man in charge, he is the one calling all the shots. Todd Boehly has become a bit of a silent partner and is rarely involved. Both sides of the ownership would love to buy the other out, but neither want to sell. They both have completely different ideas on how the club should be run, what to do with the stadium, and FOS sponsors. One SPTC Source has told me that they are playing a game of tug of war, pulling in the opposite directions, but neither side is currently falling over. I have no idea how it ends or how/if it gets sorted out, but right now, Behdad is fully invested in what he is doing and is fully behind his project and still has real belief in it. Behdad and his sporting team are at every game they can get to and they go to the dressing room to debrief after those games. The Chelsea owner has become very hands on and proactive, and he has no desire to move away from what he is doing at the club. New manager IF, and it’s still an if at this point, Maresca is sacked, or if he walks, now or in the summer, don’t expect any new manager in who currently plays transitional or pragmatic football. Chelsea have a club-wide ideology to play possession-based football only. So they would only look for that kind of manager. I also wouldn’t expect any big personalities to come in, because the head coach gets very little say in operations. If Maresca goes, I can only see Liam Rosenior ‘getting promoted’ from Strasbourg. I genuinely see that happening. I don’t think we would see an Andoni Iraola or even an Oliver Glasner come in. They already have Rosenior lined up for when needed. Chelsea have a rotation policy across the club, and they have a style of football that they want to continue playing and a specific-type of manager in mind to keep it implemented. It’s all in the plans from Behdad, and it’s the way they see it as taking the club forward. Would protests help? Nope. Doubt it. They are very much in their vision and very much backing it and wanting to see it through. They aren’t about to change what they are doing because fans protest about it. Maybe sustained protests might eventually have some sort of effect. But from everything I’ve seen and heard, this is their way of doing things, they have belief in it, and it’s that way or the highway.