If I was a Chelsea fan, I would be concerned about how recent events have developed, but there is also a more positive side to the story. BTW, I support Charlton and I expect Chelsea to win the FA Cup game by something like 3-1.
Even by Chelsea’s standards, this is an extraordinary
sequence of events. On December 12, Enzo
Maresca was named Barclays Manager of the Month for November. Three weeks
later, he is gone.
The speed of Maresca’s departure at Stamford Bridge is
pretty shocking. It was only in late November that Maresca engineered one of
the most impressive wins of his tenure — a 3-0 victory over Barcelona in the
Champions League.
Five days later and Chelsea sent out a statement that they
might be title contenders by securing a 1-1 draw with Arsenal, despite being
down to 10 men for nearly an hour due to Moises Caicedo’s first-half red card.
They were third in the Premier League, just six points behind their London
rivals.
Now they are a further nine points off the league leaders
and making another change in the dugout.
Chelsea had always intended to review how the club was
progressing, including Maresca’s performance, at the end of the season, his
second in charge. This was still the case earlier this week. For the Italian to
go with so much left to play for emphasises the extent to which things have
broken down. There were another three and a half years left on his contract,
plus an option for it to be extended by a further 12 months.
Since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium bought the club
in late May 2022, they have had six head coaches.
You could never say the club’s fanbase really warmed to
Maresca en masse. There is now surely a
good chance that the frustration felt in the stands that night will be redirected
towards the club hierarchy, even if the latter feel Maresca is responsible for
how things have soured.
Chelsea have no time to waste in terms of picking up the
pieces, but this is where they will believe their structure of working does
limit the damage. With the sporting leadership team in charge of recruitment,
it means they have not been left with a squad full of players hand-picked by
the manager and another coming in wanting different ones instead. The head
coach is employed chiefly to do just that: coach the team, although Maresca was
fully consulted on signings.
There is still plenty Chelsea can achieve. The club’s aim at
the beginning of the season was to finish in the top four, as they did last
year, and compete in the other three cup competitions they are participating
in. Despite their terrible run of form lately, Chelsea still have the
opportunity to do this and believe they can.
At the time of writing, they sit fifth in the Premier League with 19 games remaining to close the gap on the two sides immediately above them, Aston Villa and Liverpool. Their FA Cup campaign begins with a winnable third-round tie at Charlton Athletic next week, followed by the first leg of a Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal.
They will go into that as underdogs, but Chelsea have saved their finest displays for the best opposition, as their recent performance against the north London side showed, as well as the win over PSG in the Club World Cup final.
They must win their last two Champions League group games to
have a hope of automatically qualifying for the last 16, yet even if they go
into the play-off round as currently expected, the possibility of progressing
remains.
With results and the team’s displays in decline, plus Maresca’s
unhappiness increasingly clear for all to see, perhaps it is for the best that
he has moved on now. Chelsea must do the same.
Comments
Post a Comment