Enzo Maresca has left Chelsea, ahead of their games against Manchester City and Arsenal over the coming fortnight.
Sky Sports News reported on Thursday morning that Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca was on the brink at his current club, with a decision on his future expected before their trip to Manchester City this weekend.
They added that a decision would be made on Thursday, with no guarantee that Maresca would still be in charge this weekend.
Matt Law then claimed it was expected Maresca would be gone by the end of the day, with David Ornstein reporting for The Athletic that the two parties are parting ways with immediate effect. Chelsea have since made the decision official.
Sky had reported on Wednesday that Maresca himself could decide to resign after a breakdown in relations with key figures at Chelsea. So even if they didn’t fire him, he might have quit.
According to the same source, Strasbourg manager Liam Rosenior is an early favourite to replace Maresca at Chelsea, with Strasbourg being a sister club of Chelsea under owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s BlueCo group.
Fabrizio Romano had also reported that Maresca’s future was indeed under discussion at Chelsea, with doubts about the manager’s future intensifying amid a tense situation. The club and the manager assessed recent results and the general situation before making the decision to end his spell.
Kaveh Solhekol of Sky claimed missing the post-match press conference on Tuesday was another sign of problems behind the scenes, with relations having been strained for some time.
At a certain point, Maresca felt a line has been crossed, and his exit became a matter of time.
The decision on Maresca’s future will obviously have a significant impact on Chelsea’s match against Manchester City on Sunday, which will have an indirect knock-on effect on City’s title race against Arsenal.
More directly, Chelsea face Arsenal in the first leg of their League Cup semi-final on January 14th.