Chelsea went into the 2025-26 season with high hopes. Off the back of winning the Europa Conference League and the Club World Cup in the summer, the Blues were expected to kick on under Enzo Maresca.
However, the Italian’s time at Stamford Bridge ended abruptly on New Year’s Day, as Chelsea announced that they had parted ways with Maresca. As one of the favourites in the Premier League betting markets for the next manager to be sacked, it felt like he had been a dead man walking in West London for a number of weeks.
Relationship with the Board Breaks Down
After going unbeaten in November, the Blues won just two of their eight games in December—beating Everton in the Premier League and a win over Cardiff in the League Cup quarter-finals, while losses included away defeats to Leeds United and to Atalanta in the Champions League.
It wasn’t just results that cost Maresca his job, however. In fact, while Chelsea’s reputation for being quick to sack managers has stayed true in the Todd Boehly era, the board may have given him more time if this entire fallout was based solely on what happened on the pitch throughout December.
But there were several external factors as well. Following the 2-1 defeat against Atalanta, Maresca made firing comments that seemed to be a dig at the lack of support from the club’s hierarchy.
“The way the players want to learn has been fantastic, and this is the reason why I praise them – because with so many problems, they are doing very well after a complicated week,” the Italian said.
“Since I joined the club, the last 48 hours have been the worst because many people didn’t support us.”
It later unravelled that those comments were about Maresca being unhappy regarding the medical team’s suggestions on when players should be substituted or miss training due to workload or risk of injury—instructions, albeit, that were reportedly ignored by the manager anyway.
Manchester City Speculation
That felt like the beginning of the end of his stint at Stamford Bridge, but matters were made worse when Maresca was linked with the Manchester City job. A former assistant to Pep Guardiola in the 2022-23 season, the 45-year-old was reportedly set to replace the Spaniard at the Etihad come the end of the season.
While Maresca initially played down the links to his former club, after he was relieved of his duties at Stamford Bridge on New Year’s Day, it quickly materialised in the press that he had, in fact, held talks with Man City—not once, but twice since the start of the season.
It wasn’t just Chelsea’s Premier League rivals that Maresca and his agent had spoken to, either; it also came out that they had also held talks with Juventus. It seems the writing had been firmly on the wall, hence why the fallout happened so quickly.
Maresca being too ‘unwell’ to attend the press conference following Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth in their final game of 2025 was the final nail in the coffin, both for him and the club. Both parties were clearly unhappy with how things were going, and there was only one possible outcome.