I'm no Maresca cultist, I Just believe in managerial stability

Sacking managers every 18 months won't win us the league...but it could prevent it

I’ve been accused of being an “Enzo Maresca Stan”, or part of some Maresca Cult, so often in the last few months. Its kinda funny, being mocked for backing a manager who just won two trophies to complete the set, and who’s beaten some of the top teams and managers in Europe.

Obviously now it’s in vogue to say he’s the worst manager we’ve had, point out every minor negative detail, and attribute things to him out of context which aren’t true. Its very clear some people wanted him out on day one, and have just been waiting for their chance to get him out - this happened last season too.

Let me explain why I back the manager.

Its not about Enzo Maresca. He wasn’t my top choice to take over from Mauricio Pochettino, hell his football isn’t always to my taste. But because of a singular firm belief.

I’m happy to predict Chelsea will not win the Premier League title on a consistent basis again until we have stability at manager level. The clubs who win the PL now have stability. Liverpool built foundations with Klopp through some very tough years, winning nothing in his first 3 years and only making the Champions League by the skin of their teeth twice. Arsenal built foundations with a manager less experienced than Enzo Maresca, building a team over several years without a trophy. Even as recently as 2022 there were Arsenal fans wanting Mikel Arteta sacked. Instead they stuck with him, and they’re now challenging for the league every year, and doing consistently well in the Champions League (though Arteta has still won less trophies than Maresca). Manchester City took time to build a proper football structure and a squad before they won anything under their new owners. They only won 2 league titles and 5 trophies in total between 2008-2016. They stuck by Pep after his first year when his style of football got criticised, and he barely made the top 4.

Now I’m not comparing them as managers to Enzo Maresca, merely making the point all those clubs had managerial stability which brought major success.

Since 2017, meanwhile, the beginning of Antonio Conte’s last season, we’ve had SEVEN permanent managers. We’ve spent over £700m under the previous ownership - more than Man City spent in the same period - and £1.6 billion under the current one. We’ve bought proven talent like Romelu Lukaku, Alvaro Morata, Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, Kalidou Koulibaly, Raheem Sterling, Hakim Ziyech, Olivier Giroud, as well as a lot of young talent, mainly under the current owners.

Not one title challenge. At all. Not with experienced or proven players, or with young ones.

In the same time Man City have had ONE manager, Arsenal had three - ONE for the last 6 years - and Liverpool two, ONE for seven of those years.

In terms of the league, these are the three clubs with the most consistent title challenges. City have won 6 of the last 8 PL titles and Liverpool 2. Arsenal have challenged 3 consecutive times and are currently top of the league.

We’ve spent as much as anyone in that time, so it’s not about money spent. It’s not even about the quality of managers. Conte, Mauricio Sarri, Thomas Tuchel and Maresca have all won trophies with Chelsea in this period.

But none of them have mounted a serious title challenge. And although managerial instability is only one reason for that - poor recruitment is another - its definitely a major factor to me.

Even Real Madrid, known for changing managers like I change underwear, had Carlo Ancelotti as their manager for four years - in which time they won two European Cups and several La Liga titles.

The last Chelsea manager to do four years in charge was John Neal over 40 YEARS ago. Chelsea’s most successful manager ever is second, Jose Mourinho started his fourth season in his first spell before leaving. Of course its no coincidence that his three year spell was our most successful spell in the last 30 years. There’s a very strong case that had Jose stayed another 2-3 years we’d have won more than we ultimately did with that team, and won the Champions League earlier. The same is likely true with Carlo Ancelotti, which is arguably the worst sacking in the club’s history, because he would undoubtedly have won more trophies with us if he had stayed.

Not once have Chelsea sacked a manager mid season, then proceeded to win the Premier League that year. Never.

Yes, we’ve won knockout competitions, but the great teams compete for the league and win it consistently. Sacking managers regularly is not conducive to this.

And that’s why I’m sick and tired of the hire fire culture which is more in the fanbase than at the club now. There’s no concept of what it takes to build a team and build success sustainably. Some other clubs fanbases have experience of this and tend to be a little more patient, but we at Chelsea have been trained into the magic bullet theory of changing the manager solves all the problems. Its almost like a reflex.

We’ve had ONE WEEK of bad results, after a run of 9 wins in 12 games (including Barcelona, Spurs and Liverpool), and suddenly Maresca is a crap coach, needs to be sacked immediately to “save our season”. This is just crazy, reactionary thinking.

Let’s be clear though, Enzo Maresca is not perfect. He got it totally wrong v Atalanta, a litany of bad decisions and subs. He also got it wrong against Leeds, which he actually admitted. His inexperience at this level shows on occasion, though, most of the time, he has learned from his mistakes.

He is inexperienced at Champions League level and as a manager, but he didn’t appoint himself, that was a club decision. Which just makes sacking him even more foolish. Above all though, to sack him is to miss the glaringly obvious issues we have has as a club this season:

• Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill, two key players out all season so far. Imagine City losing Erling Haaland, that’s how big those misses are for us.

• A short pre-season following a very long season last year. Players barely got any rest and then had little time to get really sharp before the season, a season with Champions League rather than Conference League.

• The above has led to 8 major injuries and absences, including our only pure 9, Liam Delap, Wesley Fofana until a month ago (and we’ve seen how good he’s been), and Dario Essugo, the player signed to backup Caicedo.

• The knock-on effect has been Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo being overplayed, playing through injury and burning out completely, which impacts us as they’re key players.

• Maresca was not backed with the proven CB he has demanded for a year or more. If we’d sold Tosin and signed a top CB, chances are we don’t lose against Man Utd, Brighton or Sunderland, which would give us at least 5/6 more points, and up to clear 3rd in the league, only two points off top. But instead, he’s either had to play Tosin or use the inexperience of Josh Acheampong, heaping unnecessary pressure on him, despite how good he is.

Even a more experienced manager would struggle in such circumstances. Maresca doesn’t have the experience of managing a top club through a CL campaign and balancing two big competitions every week. He’s making mistakes in rotation and subs, and it’s showing.

But a lot of factors have gone against him, and he’s not been backed properly by those above him. We’re still very much in the Champions League race. The UEFA co-efficient has England top right now, which would give the PL another Champions League place, making 5th - where we are now - enough to qualify. There’s still 23 PL games and 6 months of the season to go. We have a cup quarter final coming up and are only two points off the top 8 in the CL. Cole Palmer is slowly getting full fitness.

Maresca and the players need to take responsibility and step up again, and put a good run together to get form and confidence back. Maybe we need to grind out some wins until form returns, the important thing is to start winning again.

Maresca’s future, in my view should be decided in the summer, as it’s planned to be. If he meets his targets, he gets another season. That’s when you decide whether he’s the man to take us to league titles or gets a chance to challenge.

Next season was always the one for me where we had to take the next big step, challenging for the title till late March/April at the very least and being much closer to the top in terms of points.

Changing the manager right now will cause chaos and disruption, which a young squad don’t need. Above all though, it will mean all the real problems are ignored, and they’ll just come up again in due course - and people will still blame the manager.

It will also set us back at least a year in terms of a title challenge due to the amount of changes and adaptations needed, and the instability it brings. It’s just not the answer if we’re serious about winning the Premier League again, and that, not some cultish love for Maresca, is why I’m backing him for the time being, and will likely back him to the end. I just don’t believe changing the coach is the magic bullet others think it is.

You want Premier League titles, then in today’s game you need to be patient with a manager, whoever he is. It’s that simple.

The Score