Enzo Maresca has shown he gets what it means to be Chelsea manager - he should be backed
Speaking the truth, showing guts, standing with the fans - Maresca gets it
I’ve been sitting here ruminating on Enzo Maresca’s comments in the Press Conference before the Cardiff game. I watched it live and my overwhelming feeling was that of pride. Because in that press conference Maresca came of age as a Chelsea manager.
He showed he fundamentally understands what it means to be a Chelsea manager and what fans want from their manager.
He did this, by not toeing the party line and trying to cover up for what he said at the weekend. He simply said he’d said all he needed to and that was that. He then said Chelsea fans deserve the best, and that his relationship with the owners was good.
When asked about the Sporting Directors, he was silent. Which told you all you needed to know.
It is clear to me Maresca’s specific issue is not with the owners, maybe not even the long term strategy. It was an issue with the Sporting Directors.
Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart have a history - as seen with the women’s team last season - of claiming credit for any success, and passing the buck to someone else when there’s a failure. It’s slimy, self serving and lacks any class, integrity or courage.
The rotation policy has been reported several times this season to be something which came from the club, the Sporting Directors, to which Maresca agreed with and supported. That comes out often when it’s worked.
Yet when its not worked, Maresca is the one singled out for criticism and the Sporting Directors have gone deathly silent. And this may be part of the issue Maresca has.
Maresca took responsibility for the Leeds defeat publicly, he didn’t make excuses. He did so again at the weekend, saying Leeds was his responsibility.
But there was no support from the club or defence from them when it didn’t work against Atalanta, even though it was still a club policy which Maresca supported.
I personally feel Maresca felt he was hung out to dry and being scapegoated when it was club policy, and when he’d not been backed with the players he said he needed which could have impacted the result. Then, a story came out on Thursday from Keiran Gill saying Chelsea would not be splashing the cash in January and Maresca was being “challenged” to make do with what he had.
What this suggests to me Maresca said after Atalanta he needed backing in January, possibly in midfield and CB, and got the door metaphorically slammed in his face.
The combination of these things was, in my view what made that 48 hours his “worst” and where he felt unsupported, both in terms of recruitment and in his work overall. And to his credit, he decided he wasn’t going to take it anymore.
On Wednesday, Thursday & Friday last week, the timeline was full of Maresca hate after the Atalanta game, and many people wanted him out. After the press conference on Monday, it was the complete opposite. More than one person I know who was skeptical of him actually messaged me saying they’d never loved him more, the timeline came out in support of him.
And why?
Because didn’t just say what the club wanted, he doubled down and called them out. Its an unspoken truth most fans know that the Sporting Directors have been a big problem at the club.
Maresca didn’t just call it out, he doubled down on it. Then he said Chelsea fans deserved success and talked about a winning mentality, and his commitment to Chelsea.
Chelsea fans always love a manager who will speak his mind, show guts, backs them publicly, and shows he will fight for them and stand with them no matter what. It’s why we loved Mourinho. Maresca showed all those qualities in his press conference.
He essentially told us he knows something we all know, about what and who the biggest issue is at the club, and that even despite that, he’s on our side and will fight for us and our club. It felt like the first genuinely Chelsea press conference for a while. For the first time, Maresca felt like one of us.
People are now saying he will walk soon, or in the summer, or be let go in the summer or even before. I don’t necessarily agree with this.
I don’t think he walks mid season, and he won’t be sacked mid season unless we have a really big slump. They’ll let him see out the season, and whether he stays or not will be entirely down to results. If he wins a trophy and gets top 4, and has a decent European run, it will be impossible for them to remove him.
A manager losing their job despite two top 4 finishes, 2 or 3 trophies, would look awful. It would make the SDs look like fools, make them look even harder to work with, make the club look foolish and would probably make it more difficult to hire a replacement. People aren’t gonna swallow their PR this time. Not to mention, I don’t see the owners signing off on getting rid of a successful manager. I could be wrong of course. But that’s how I see it.
I also think if the season ends well, he will be happy to stay. He knows what he has at Chelsea, there’s a talented squad here with more talent coming in, regardless of him not being backed. And winning always helps. If he’s winning here, he’ll be happy to stay, and they’ll be fine to keep him, in my view.
The only way he goes, for me, is if he goes on a big losing streak, or fails to achieve his targets this year. And to be honest, he’d lose his job anyway if either of those happened, regardless of this weekend. Apart from that, if it’s really that unworkable, he shouldn’t be the one leaving…though we all know in that case he obviously would be the one to go.
If Chelsea now go on a winning run, the confidence, the feeling of winning and positive energy around it all will, in my view, quiet all the noise. He won’t be going anywhere if we’re winning regularly and the heat will die down. It’s only if he now goes on an awful run of form and/or fails to meet targets, that his job will be under threat.
To me, we’d be absolutely crazy to ditch him. He’s shown he’s a top manager, a winner and can tactically match any top coach in Europe. Given the injuries, fatigue and lack of backing, to be where we are, and with the joint 2nd best defence in the PL and 3rd highest goals, is very positive.
If we get rid of him, we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot for no good reason. It would absolute idiocy. He deserves to be backed and supported long term. And for what its worth, I think we WILL have a successful season this year.
I have even bigger respect for Maresca as a man, and a manager, after the last few days. Whatever happens, to me he’s shown he’s a top coach, a winner and has the qualities to be a Chelsea manager. And even if he leaves, he will leave a legacy of winning two trophies and beating some of the top sides and managers in Europe, and likely, with the love and respect of a lot of Chelsea fans.
I personally hope that’s not the case, and Maresca becomes the first Chelsea manager since Jose to start a third successive season.
Because if Maresca stays and is backed, Chelsea will be successful. Period.
The Score
@TheScore Overall I generally agree with everything you’ve said above. We are our own worst enemies and create this miss ourselves. There should be no focus on Chelsea with the way Tottenham and Manchester United are playing and the results they are getting.
We are forth in the league, and as you say the joint 2nd best defence in the PL and 3rd highest goals. Yes this all very positive. As a fan base we’ve gone from believing, without real foundation, that we are real challenges off the Arsenal game to some of the comments subsequently giving the impression we were in the relegation zone.
Massive swings one way and the other. We all need to calm down and that includes the owners, sporting directors and the manager. This still has the potential for being a season of further growth and improvement. The grass is not always green at the other side of the fence so don’t go looking to ditch a manager but so far has shown progression, how old his hands up when he’s got it wrong and has improved players. That said he should keep his negative comment internal. In respect for the sporting directors, I accept they’ve not done what he’s asked, but that’s the instructions from on high. They have a vision, which most of us believe could be tweaked and improved upon, but they’re going to stick to it whether we like it or not.
Respectfully, I have to disagree. It's hard to give him credit for disagreeing with SDs at this point after he's been eating all of their shit regarding player selection and squad building for the best part of 18 months. If he wasn't willing to take this position in regard to the SDs he would never have got the job. From reports at the time it basically sounded like other more credible managers basically wouldn't accept being told who they're playing by two recruitment specialists from Brighton. So once again, it's hard to give him credit for taking this position now.
In terms of him being a Chelsea manager, I don't think he's ever fit the bill. His football is fearful and when executed as he wants seems to de-platform our best players. Our best moments under him have come when players have decided to ignore his instructions or when we abandoned what he's meant to be about and we go long and direct (like against PSG in the CWC).
When he speaks he's often come across as quite negative and defeatist, and basically doesn't have responses to recurring problems. At different times he's also set himself vaguely on edge against fans. Great Chelsea managers like Mourinho, Ancelotti, Conte, Tuchel, these were all either great communicators or had great relationships with fans; Maresca has neither.
For the life of me, I can't understand the will of a lot of Chelsea fans to try and cling so desperately onto him, and try and see read good things from what's going on in the club. I understand not wanting to change manager all the time, but surely when there's managers out there who are clearly a lot better and have achieved a lot more (than Maresca did before Chelsea), we should be looking elsewhere? Most clubs don't have managers who stay more than 2-3 years and build dynasties, they're the exception.