Maresca is said to have asked to leaveplaceholder image
Maresca is said to have asked to leave | Getty Images
Chelsea’s relationship with Enzo Maresca is said to have broken over a key transfer decision.
Enzo Maresca’s time at Chelsea is over after 18 months, with the Italian parting company with the Blues on the back of a disappointing draw with AFC Bournemouth. But it seems as though the results, which have Chelsea in fifth place and in with a good chance of securing back-to-back Champions League qualifications, were only a part of the equation.
Maresca’s relationship with Chelsea has been fractured for some time, and it became clear to the public when the Italian recently spoke of how he had struggled through the ‘worst week’ of his Stamford Bridge tenure, claiming that unnamed people within the club did not support him.
The relationship only seemed to break down further from there, and on New Year’s Day, Maresca reportedly asked to be set free from his position, with the Blues happy to agree. That’s according to Fabrizio Romano, who provided a back story to Maresca’s departure on his Here We Go podcast.
“In the last months as well,” Romano replied when asked what went wrong in the final days of Maresca’s tenure. “In the last days, the result against Bournemouth proved the last point for Maresca and Chelsea. Maresca didn’t go to do his press conference after the game, and it was not because he was feeling sick or that he had personal issues, it was just because I’m told that Enzo Maresca, after the game, went directly to the Chelsea directors and owners and told them that he wanted to leave the club.
“He was feeling that the situation would not be possible to change any time soon, and Chelsea had the same feeling. Their feeling of Maresca was mot positive at all, and that’s why they decided to end the agreement. The situation in recent weeks was not positive at all, and of course because of the results, but not just because of results, it was about several things like strategy and transfers.
“I think one crucial moment where the relationship started to break between Chelsea and Enzo Maresca was in the summer, when Levi Colwill, one of the best players at Chelsea, broke his ACL. So, for several months out, Maresca went public and said ‘I need a centre-back’. He was feeling that, to compete in several competitions in the best way possible, he needed a centre-back.
“Chelsea decided to stick with what they had, to trust the young players like Josh Acheampong, and they did not want to sign any player. Chelsea were like ‘we decide the structure’ and so it is not the manager asking for a signing in public, and so in that moment it started to get tense, and now we arrive in this moment where it is over between Maresca and Chelsea.”
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