🚨🔵 Maresca continues to be frustrated by aspects of the Chelsea project affecting his independence to make decisions and strategic elements don’t always align with how he wants to manage the team.

(Via Ben Jacobs)

FireSide

#Chaos

✓ You are supposed to explain your tactics to technical directors who know nothing about coaching?

✓ You asked for different midfield attributes in the transfer market to address your major issue but they chose to overcrowd a position you are not interested in with two expensive weak players instead

✓ Your best CB injured Early in the transfer window but they ignore your pleas and ask you to go with your weakest option of them all

✓ They do away with your 9 and weaken the position further with two equally clumsy and weak forwards

✓ They hire a dead ball specialist coach you didn't ask for and you still concede stupid silly amature level goals

But at the end you have to issue a press conference on why your team is not working?

Sometimes I am frustrated with Maresca stubbornness with his tactical beliefs but sporting Directors bullshit should also not be entertained.

Now watch the media play their role conveniently highlighting Maresca’s “weaknesses” as the main justification for his sacking.

It’s an obvious pattern: narratives pushed by voices closely aligned with the club, shaping public opinion to make ownership look justified when the trigger is finally pulled. Suddenly everything is Maresca’s fault, while the structural mess above him is quietly ignored.

It’s not analysis, it’s positioning. Control the story first, then execute the decision later.

Give reasons why you chose the admin too

2025, that’s a wrap. 👊

🔗 Chelsea FC

Remember when the new Chelsea owners/directors briefed to the media that under Abramovich the club was “not particularly well ran on the football side, promotional side, or sporting side”?

They still don’t even have a front of shirt sponsor lol, and they just signed all these dogshit players.

Maresca has zero responsibility for this shit show. He asked for experience and he got more youth. He asked for a CB and got nothing.

He's being told to rotate players just so they can show potential to be sold in the future. The ownership isn't making decisions to win they're making decisions to make money on sales.

You don't get to become a great manager like Maresca by saying yes to whatever the bosses say. Great managers have principles, they can't stand losing.

No good manager is gonna touch Chelsea if he can't even choose his first XI

Maresca doesn't need Chelsea we need him, watch Real Madrid or Man City snatch him up in a few months while we get Rosenior or De Zerbi.

Tuchel to Potter

Poch to Maresca

Picked because SDs thought they'd be yes men who never talk back to the bullshit, grateful to be at Chelsea forever. We're not Real Madrid. Managers will come just to climb the ladder tho, as Maresca has done.

We went from the best owner in world football to the most idiotic.

Besides all this what options do we have

Fabregas - would be my no. 1 but he's not leaving Como mid season as he is a part owner

Glasner - would be my no 2 choice but Palace aren't going to let him leave

Zidane - only wants the France NT

Iraiola - risky as he hasn't worked at this level

Xavi - has his faults but is decent. Definitely won't be a yes man so I doubt SDs go for him

Postecoglu - terrible

Southgate - terrible

Rosenoir - even less experienced than everyone on this list, done nothing special at Strasbourg after spending big.

Whichever one we get, I can tell you for a fact he's coming planning very short term. To improve his own profile and get a huge payout when he inevitably gets sacked.

Maresca knew exactly what Chelsea was when he joined. He accepted the chaos, but no serious manager prefers limited control over being the main decision maker. He tolerated it, not embraced it.

He delivered results quickly. Conference League. Club World Cup. Then he changed his agent. That move screams ambition. Not necessarily a desire to leave immediately, but readiness to move if a better situation appears. Chelsea could have rewarded that success with more authority. They didn’t. That likely explains the frustration and the “worst 48 hours” comments.

Then Ornstein drops the Man City link. Maresca and Pep are very close. If Pep is planning an exit and wants Maresca as his successor, there is zero chance Maresca turns that down. City offers status, stability, and CONTROL. Things that Chelsea don’t give you.

The problem is the contract. Chelsea won’t release him easily. So what do managers do in this situation? They force the issue. Create pressure, make separation inevitable

Timing matters. If he did this at the season’s end it’ll look obvious. Do it now, step away for a few months, and by summer the narrative resets. Fans forget. Media moves on. He arrives at City “fresh,” not “poached.” That’s how the game is played.

Chelsea didn’t betray him. They acted exactly like Chelsea. The real issue is the structure. No stable core. Limited managerial power. Any young manager who succeeds here will eventually look elsewhere when a club offering control comes calling.

So I don’t blame Maresca. This is the consequence of how the club is run. If Chelsea want to stop this cycle, they need to make the job worth staying in.

(Via Vince on X)

Ooh. ... Wait till you see "Mate" walking in 😁. You just don't know our SD....

I wouldn't even be surprised if Southgate "brings vast amounts of experience locally and internationally from North to South"

Crazy times.

Given how the club is run, Chelsea has basically become a stepping stone for managers.

A manager comes in, overachieves with a young and inexperienced squad, boosts his CV, then moves on to a better job where he has real control.

We saw it with Pochettino. We’re watching it happen again with Maresca.

If nothing changes at the top, this cycle will never end.

It’s jarring.

Just a month ago we beat Barcelona

Played with ten men against Arsenal and drew

Maresca won November manager of the month and we are here

As Chelsea fans we are used to managers changing but it likely wasn't the plan under the “project” to keep having to change.

Maresca can see that the best he can hope for at Chelsea is top 4 and a Carabao cup. I don't think world class players will stand for this nonsense either especially with the low wages we're paying. Wouldn't be surprised if they handed in transfer requests come the end of the season.

Enzo Fernandez will now have six managers in three years at Chelsea, embarrassing!

❗️Signings at Chelsea since Maresca took charge:

Tosin
Kellyman
Estevao
Kellyman
Guiu
Dewsbury-Hall
Veiga
Caleb Wiley
Jorgensen
Anselmino
Pedro Neto
Joao Felix
Mike Penders
Sancho
Delap
Essugo
Gittens
Hato
Joao Pedro
Paez
Sarr
Buonanotte

1.74 - Under Enzo Maresca, Chelsea averaged 1.74 points-per-game in the Premier League. Among managers with 30+ league games in charge of the club in the 21st century, only Frank Lampard (1.52) and Mauricio Pochettino (1.66) have a lower rate. Departing.

Enzo Maresca's 'worst 48 hours' comments were to do with the medical advice he was receiving over how many minutes certain players returning from injury could play. There was some surprise inside #Chelsea when Maresca was ignoring said advice.

[via Kieran Gill]

🚨🔵 Maresca believed the pressure on him was unfair given what he felt were difficult working conditions, and that a line had been crossed in terms of attempts to influence his team selection.

While he was not angry about overseeing a young squad, he felt supporters' expectations needed to be managed regarding what was achievable - especially given key injuries to Colwill and attacker Cole Palmer.

(Nizaar Kinsella) #CFC