After parting ways with Mauricio Pochettino on the 21st of May, 2024, Chelsea has been busy in the manager market looking to swiftly replace the Argentinian quickly before the start of the summer transfer window. Enzo Maresca has appeared to be the club’s choice.
Rumors have it that Pochettino and the Chelsea hierarchy seemed to disagree on fundamental issues like strategy and squad management, concerning hiring young players instead of experience, and issues like selling experienced squad favourites like Conor Gallagher and Trevor Chalobah.
After Pochettino’s departure from the club, different media outlets have reported that Chelsea’s next managerial hire would be dependant on the manager being young, his style of play being possession based and him being able to work within the club’s set structure.
Chelsea Pick Enzo Maresca For The Project
🚨🔵 Chelsea have agreed to appoint Enzo Maresca as new head coach, here we go!
❗️ Understand the agreement is now done on contract valid until June 2029, five year deal.
It will also include an option to extend until June 2030.#CFC, set to pay compensation fee to Leicester. pic.twitter.com/o8CsGF9Jcx
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 28, 2024
A day after the London club announced they had agree a mutual termination of Mauricio Pochettino’s contract, the media began running a rumor mill on names that the club’s hierarchy were going after the replace the Argentinian.
The list at the beginning consisted of Thomas Frank of Brentford, Kieran McKenna of Ipswich, and Enzo Maresca of Leicester City. Other rumors had Hansi Flick, Vincent Kompany, Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte as possible targets.
As Bayern heated up their pursuit of Vincent Kompany, media speculation died about him being in the running for the Chelsea job. McKenna was a favourite for the job for a few days until the hiring process came to a head and Enzo Maresca became the hierarchy’s obvious choice.
Enzo Maresca Will Sign A Five-Year Contract
Enzo Maresca got approached by both Chelsea and Sevilla at about the same time due to the excellent job he did with Leicester City. Favouring a stay in the Premier League, the Italian rejected Sevilla and waited for the greenlight from Chelsea.
Enzo Maresca will sign a contract that would keep him in Stamford Bridge till June 2029, on a five-year deal. An option to extend the contract for one more year is also included. The Stamford Bridge club will have to pay a compensation fee of around £7/8 million to Leicester.
He is likely going to resume in Stamford Bridge with majority of his backroom staff at Leicester City which would include former Chelsea and Manchester City goalkeeper Willy Caballero. It will be a reunion of Cole Palmer and Maresca. Enzo Maresca coached Palmer in the Manchester City youth setup.
Maresca’s Style That Caught Chelsea’s Eyes
The Chelsea hierarchy settled on Enzo Maresca because they were attracted to his dedication to the Pep Guardiola kind of positional play. The Italian is committed to this coaching philosophy that has influenced and led to the the success of Pep’s prodigy, Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta.
The sporting directors were impressed by his “encyclopedic” knowledge of the club and all the players. They also believe he’d be the best option to bring out the best in players like Enzo Fernandez, Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo, Nicolas Jackson, and Romeo Lavia.
One of Chelsea’s summer signings last year, Romeo Lavia, happened to miss almost the entire season due to injury. Before he moved to Southampton from where the London club bought him, he played under Enzo Maresca at the Manchester City academy. He described the Italian’s style as what helped develop his game.
“I really enjoy recovering the ball and passing through the lines. Enzo’s helped me a lot with that, always being on the half-turn so I can see the game going forward, so it’s not a problem now.”
Enzo Maresca described his own style of play as playing chess.
“The chess board is like a football pitch that can be divided into three channels — a central one and two external ones. In football as in chess, an inside game can be more interesting as it’s the quickest and most direct towards goal or the king.”
Robert Snodgrass has also praised Maresca’s coaching style. Unlike other managers, he prefers his players pressing space rather than pressing players.
“I’d always thought of pressing as pressing other players, but he got my head into how to press space and how to make a difference that way. Attacks started with the centre-backs. You played high up and got bodies in the opponent’s half and you tried to win the ball high up. What you got was wing-backs going high and creating space for the wingers. Then your two eights would make big forward runs to give you something to aim at.”
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Ebenezer has been an avid writer for over a decade and a half. Within that period, he has garnered experience in various fields such as editing, graphics design, transcribing, sales, data analysis, and football management. He’s also the author of the mystery thriller novel “The Eye of Ra.”
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