Why Enzo Maresca might resign as Chelsea manager today after 'clear' threat

Enzo Maresca once threatened to quit if there was ‘some doubt’ about his ‘idea’. An alternative plan might be to instigate an unwinnable Chelsea civil war.

If the elite coaching game doesn’t quite work out for Enzo Maresca, at least the Italian has wisely laid the groundwork for a permanent move into the sphere of professional managersplaining.

His determination to be filed alongside Maurizio Sarri and Rafael Benitez as deeply unloved tactic obsessives who never understood and even actively derided the unique dynamic at Chelsea is curious, especially without the history of success most of his predecessors can use in a battle against the fans that no manager will ever win.

The first real signs of incompatibility came in February, when Maresca described being eliminated from the FA Cup by Brighton as “a shame” but immediately pointed to the apparent bright side: that they could be “focused” on the Premier League and Conference League.

With Champions League qualification now beyond them through consistent incompetence and the latter an absolute bare minimum as failure to win Europe’s tertiary competition with the most expensive squad in football history remains unthinkable, it was a specifically ludicrous thing for a Chelsea manager to say.

But far more damaging was Maresca blaming the fans for his inability to oversee a single win against Ipswich this season.

“Both goals we conceded, we can defend better,” he said after a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge which followed December’s 2-0 defeat at Portman Road. “But if you analyse both goals, the first goal is from an Enzo long ball and then we concede. The second is a goal kick, a long ball and we concede.

“This is the moment that you have to continue doing the right things and don’t change the plan. The second goal, we decide to play long, because the environment is there, and we concede the second one. You have to be strong, you have to continue with the things that you are doing. “In terms of fans, I said many times, we are stronger with our fans, we are a better team. It’s up to them to decide the way. For sure today, probably, at 0-1, 0-2, it’s normal to be the way they were. But it’s probably the moment the players need more support.”

A counter-argument might be that the continued presence of Robert Sanchez is more harmful to Chelsea’s prospects than any noise that might carry down from the stands, or that any philosophy which crumbles under the pressure of it being pointed out that they probably shouldn’t be losing at home to a promoted and soon-to-be relegated side isn’t worth pursuing. But Maresca isn’t the first manager to consider dying on the playing style hill.

Of course, arguing that going long instead of playing out from the back “doesn’t mean that you are going to control something” is not the mic drop he thinks it is at this club. Chelsea have had 33 managers in the Premier League while habitually winning trophies without ever attaching themselves to a particular style. It is their thing. The reigns of Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti were two years apart and the fans who remember both remarkably fondly care not for “control” when they are sixth and losing at home to Ipswich after fundamentally collapsing in a post-Christmas form table.

It wasn’t even the first time Maresca’s mask has slipped. “You can feel the fans when they’re not happy,” he said after Leicester supporters booed during a win over Swansea last March.

“I arrive in this club to play with this idea. The moment there is some doubt about the idea, the day after, I will leave. It’s so clear. No doubts.”

It is unknown whether Maresca’s convictions remain quite so unyielding in a post to which he was grossly overpromoted as they were when he stood on that career stepping stone in the East Midlands almost exactly a year ago, but it does feel unlikely he will be tendering his resignation to Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali imminently.

And the suggestion is the owners would refuse it anyway, so reportedly determined are they to break their own revolving manager cycle.

But if this is to work then Maresca will have to pack away the soapbox from which he seems desperate to tell fans how to view the game they pay so handsomely to watch his team frequently play to a substandard level.

“If you think football is just PlayStation and you win easy? No way. Every game is difficult,” was his response to the boos which greeted a backwards pass during a thoroughly unconvincing home win over Leicester in March. That threat to quit Leicester during another stark drop-off in the second half of a season was accompanied with a note saying: “Probably the people, they think it’s easy to win games, but it’s not easy. Probably some people, they take some things for granted.”

The accusation could be returned with righteous fury; Maresca should take neither his position nor the fans for granted. He would be the first casualty of a civil war he himself is promising to instigate.

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