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One of the theories doing the rounds this week is that Enzo Maresca is behaving like someone who wants to be sacked. He has stumbled into a fight he cannot win. It did not go down well with Chelsea when Maresca lobbed a grenade into the mix by talking about not being supported enough after last Saturday’s humdrum win against Everton and it is hard not to read his refusal to defuse the situation since then as the stance of a man daring his bosses to act.
Chelsea remain bemused by their head coach creating speculation that he has issues with the club’s hierarchy by saying that the 48 hours before the Everton game had been his worst since joining the club. Sources say the outburst even caught people close to Maresca by surprise. Confusion reigns. It does not help that Maresca has publicly and privately rejected repeated opportunities to explain the source of his discontent, leaving it open for outsiders to assume that the Italian’s issues are with Chelsea’s hierarchy.
No wonder this was all anyone wanted to talk about before Chelsea’s trip to Newcastle on Saturday. Rumours of Manchester City identifying Maresca as a potential replacement for Pep Guardiola next summer were deliciously timed. It has been noted that Maresca’s new agent, Jorge Mendes, is close to Hugo Viana, City’s sporting director. There is speculation that the links with City have emboldened Maresca and form an attempt to gain more power at Chelsea, who have built a structure that leaves no room for a manager to call the shots.
Maresca did not back down when he addressed reporters on Friday morning. He downplayed the links with City, where he was assistant to Guardiola during the 2022-23 season, but said it was “important to understand the reason why this news” had surfaced. Was he hinting at a leak? This is a PR battle now. Maresca is currying favour with Chelsea fans. The 45-year-old tapped the badge on his chest when the travelling support sang his name after their side’s Carabao Cup quarter-final win against Cardiff on Tuesday. Perhaps Maresca is playing up to the fact that a large section of the fanbase remain wary of Chelsea’s sporting directors, Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, and the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership.
Stewart and Winstanley give regular tactical and technical feedback to Maresca after games, no matter the result. The sense is that someone annoyed the former Leicester manager by questioning whether his substitutions cost Chelsea in their recent defeat by Atalanta. Chelsea remain in the dark, though. On Friday Maresca said general discussions with the sporting directors this week had not focused on the Everton press conference. He said nobody had asked to clear the air with him. Asked whether that should have happened, Maresca replied: “I don’t know. That was just a press conference after the game.”
That was disingenuous; it was clearly more than “just a press conference”. This was pointed out to Maresca, who was asked whether there were issues that needed to be addressed with the board. “It’s a question for them, not for me,” he said. “I said already many times that what I said, it was not an emotional reaction. It was not an emotional reaction. I said what I said. Full stop.”
If only. This was Maresca all but admitting his comments were premeditated. It was an obvious provocation. His position is hardly aligned with the club’s given that Chelsea insiders had sought to downplay Maresca’s initial comments, describing them as nothing more than “an emotional response to an emotional win”. That line means nothing now. Maresca has ripped it apart and can have no complaints if it is held against him.
His promise that he will still be at Chelsea next season is even harder to believe now. The plan remains to review Maresca’s position at the end of the season and it is safe to say this episode is going to count against him.
Chelsea do not want drama. The five-strong recruitment team gives them stability, as does the decision to hand out long contracts to young players. The structure is set. Collaboration is encouraged and the strategy is never going to be led by the coach.
Maresca knew what he was signing up for when he joined last year. Chelsea dislike him using the success of the past six months to act out. One source pointed out earlier this week that Maresca was happy to toe the line last season. A dim view is taken of his change of behaviour, and another figure adds that Chelsea have been good for Maresca. They took a chance by recruiting him from a Championship club and upping his pay. Maresca is an inexperienced coach. He is playing a dangerous game. There is no guarantee that he will walk into a better job and while Chelsea have no desire to make a mid-season managerial change their hand may be forced if the mood becomes toxic and the team’s form is affected.
Maresca should change course. Chelsea have been moving in the right direction but this is a brutal, fickle business. Maresca’s contract runs until 2029 but he was noncommittal when asked how he would respond if offered a new deal. “This is a question for the club, if I deserve a new contract,” he said. It is not hard to guess the answer at the moment.
