Enzo Maresca is far from the first Chelsea manager to see his tenure at Stamford Bridge come to an “unexpected and abrupt” end. In a rare change of pace, this end came solely on the manager’s terms.
Let’s get one thing straight from the start: leaving in the manner he did is not a good look for the new Manchester City manager. Breaking his long-term contract when he “had no right to terminate” puts him very much in the wrong. But considering Chelsea’s history, it’s hard to take them seriously as the victim.
“No one wants to change its head coach midway through a season,” read Chelsea’s barbed statement towards Maresca, released moments after his appointment at City was made official. The irony is laughably blatant; BlueCo have changed their head coach midway through the four of the last five seasons, and twice last year.
Chelsea’s infuriating lack of patience for managers is in their DNA. It’s a trait that has carried over from the Roman Abramovich era to now and is maligned by their own fans, symptomatic of the generally haphazard, unforgiving and reactionary running of the club.
Maresca was clearly delighted to get out from under this sort of operation. “City is an incredibly well-run football club,” he said in quotes that accompanied the announcement of his Etihad Stadium arrival. “Everything they do is innovative, planned and purposeful. For a manager, that is a dream situation. It provides the consistency I need to do my job effectively.” It felt as if this had been directed towards his former employers, probably knowing what they had in store for him.
New Blues manager Xabi Alonso, meanwhile, will likely be left embarrassed by this whole messy break-up. Chelsea have acted like someone still hung up on their ex over being dumped... while already being in a new relationship. Before the Spaniard’s even touched down in London, he’s already seen a red flag.
After all, Maresca and Chelsea had mutated into a match made in hell. Two weeks before his resignation, he had complained about how he had just endured the “worst 48 hours” at the club since joining, in an extraordinary post-match press conference of Chelsea’s win over Everton. We now have clarification as to why: the two parties were evidently at loggerheads with Chelsea feeling Maresca’s “head and heart were focused on another club and another opportunity”. They were right - and in a delightful coincidence, Chelsea will come up against Maresca almost exactly one year on from that famous outburst on 12 December at the Etihad Stadium.
The club had the grounds to pursue Maresca and City for compensation and a settlement has been reached with both, receiving a fee of £17m from their Premier League rivals and, unusually, a further undisclosed figure from the Italian to the Blues. But in going explosively public with their complaints, they have opened themselves up to accusations of hypocrisy.
Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter, two managers who both once felt the BlueCo scythe mid-season, will probably roll their eyes reading that statement. Both are focused on bigger things now - they are managing in the knockouts of the World Cup. Instead, the epicentre of frustration will lie in Alsace.
Chelsea responded to abruptly losing their manager mid-season by ensuring that disruption and unhappiness was felt across multiple fronts of the BlueCo family. Returning to the sister club they have pillaged since 2023, Chelsea snapped up then-Strasbourg manager Liam Rosenior, in the middle of the season.
The details surrounding any break clause in Rosenior’s contract at Strasbourg went undisclosed. Whatever it was, we know BlueCo wrote it. In line with a Strasbourg trend, Rosenior had been groomed for an eventual move to Stamford Bridge, though it came far sooner than it should have.
Chelsea paid the Ligue 1 outfit the “market rate” in compensation for Rosenior, which was reportedly £2.5m. This was more a formality than anything - all negotiation power clubs would usually have in this scenario was absent for Strasbourg given they share Chelsea’s owners.
Compensation therefore failed to touch the sides of the wrath at the Meinau, where Strasbourg fans still go silent at the beginning of every home match in protest of multi-ownership and being a “pawn” in Chelsea’s game.
Rosenior’s Chelsea reign proved spectacularly ill-fated. He went on the club’s worst run of form since 1912 before he became the latest to lose his job at Stamford Bridge before the season’s conclusion, with Chelsea completely out of Champions League contention. Strasbourg, meanwhile, missed out on Europe under hastily hired new boss Gary O’Neil - something they were on course to get under Rosenior.
BlueCo is allowed to think that Maresca’s defiance was the first fallen domino that led to two of their clubs enduring a season collapse. Chelsea’s statement effectively blames him directly for their “hugely disappointing” 2025/26.
But for a club whose job security is so infamously poor, to come out and air their dirty laundry one of their managers who - for once - left them, gives an air of double standards, as well as a disconnect with their own reality. Their decisions that followed his resignation - particularly the one surrounding Rosenior’s appointment - were dire across the board and all contributed to the capitulation witnessed in the months that followed.
Maresca is already fighting fires surrounding any questions of disloyalty. He’s immediately vowed not leave Man City after signing for his third spell on the club’s coaching staff - this time, he’s at the helm. “This is the third time – hopefully it’s the last time I come back and I don’t leave anymore.” Despite being made to look like an unappreciated rebound, Chelsea will hope Alonso still harbours a similar sentiment.
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