The coach of the reigning FIFA Club World Cup champion has lost his job. Enzo Maresca's 18-month term at Chelsea ended on New Year's Day, after the relationship between him and senior figures at The Blues collapsed quickly and suddenly.
The wave of criticism flared up fiercely after the information was released, to the point that legal disputes arose about whether Maresca would actively resign or be sacked. In a statement on Thursday, Chelsea used the deliberately ambiguous phrase "contract terminated", as lawyers on both sides were arguing about the compensation Maresca could receive (if any).
The Italian captain has a contract until 2029, with an option to extend for another year, in line with Chelsea's long-term signing policy for both personnel and players. In principle, this contract structure aims to create stability, and Chelsea plans to re-evaluate Maresca's position at the end of the 2025-2026 season to reduce the impact of short-term result fluctuations.
During his term, Maresca brought in the FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Conference League and brought Chelsea to the Champions League after finishing fourth in the only full Premier League season he coached. He was also voted the best coach of November of the Premier League.
However, just one day after entering 2026, Chelsea had to look for a new official head coach - the fifth since BlueCo took over the team in May 2022 - after a disappointing streak of form with only 1 win in 7 matches.
Chelsea views their operating model in a similar direction to Liverpool. Specifically, the structure in which the head coach is only an important voice in the operating "ecosystem", not an absolute dominant figure. The core argument of this model is to reduce dependence on individuals on the coaching bench, thereby ensuring that any coach changes do not lead to a breakdown in identity or force the team to reshape its entire philosophy.
Therefore, the story of Manchester United continuously changing style after the Sir Alex Ferguson era - when coaches came and went in a decade - is considered a scenario Chelsea wants to avoid.
Maresca understood this when he agreed to succeed Mauricio Pochettino in the summer of 2024. After helping Leicester City win the Championship, Maresca entered a significantly larger environment at Stamford Bridge. Initially, this was considered a reasonable choice for a strategist who still has relatively little experience in the context of Chelsea operating under a collective model.
Maresca brought 6 coaching staff members from Leicester, but according to sources, Chelsea clarified from the beginning that the head coach will not have full authority in key areas such as personnel selection, control of the medical department or transfer orientation. After Dave Fellows joined in November 2025, Chelsea currently has 5 Sporting Directors. Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stuart hold the leadership role, with the support of Joe Shields and Sam Jewell.
Over time, sources said Maresca began to feel disappointed with the level of interference from outside his direct advisory group. Maresca believes that he deserves a greater voice based on the achievements he has made.
Those successes were then pushed higher when Chelsea overcame harsh weather conditions and the negative consequences of the domestic schedule to win the FIFA Club World Cup in the US.
However, Chelsea's stance is still consistent: the operating structure is not something that can be negotiated. In that context, Maresca began to publicly express dissatisfaction.
He expressed disappointment when The Blues refused to sign another center-back in August, after a knee injury that is likely to cause Levi Colwill to be out for the rest of the season. By December, Maresca was even considered to have "counted down" his departure date when he publicly called the preparation period for the 2-0 victory over Everton "the worst 48 hours" he had ever experienced at Chelsea.
Maresca's refusal to clarify at subsequent press conferences further confused public opinion and increased instability. And in just 19 days, Chelsea announced Maresca had left his position.
