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Chelsea’s board are to meet today to discuss Enzo Maresca’s future at the club.
The Stamford Bridge club are winless in their past three games, most recently drawing 2-2 with 15th-placed Bournemouth on Tuesday. They are fifth in the Premier League, 15 points behind leaders Arsenal and only five points above 14th-placed Brighton & Hove Albion.
Maresca was the top flight’s manager of the month in November but sparked uncertainty over his future last month when he said, following a home win against Everton on December 13, that the previous 48 hours had been his “worst since I joined the club, because many people didn’t support us”. The Italian is on a five-year contract at Stamford Bridge to take him through to 2029.
The Athletic revealed days after Maresca’s comments that he is high among the candidates Manchester City are considering in the event of Pep Guardiola leaving the Etihad Stadium next summer, though the Catalan is under contract until 2027. The two teams meet each other at the Etihad on Sunday.
Maresca has worked at Manchester City before, leading their under-21s for the 2020-21 season and returning as a first-team assistant in summer 2022. While he is expected to figure prominently if a vacancy arises in Manchester, he would not be the only candidate.
Despite the scrutiny surrounding his future, Maresca later assured Chelsea fans he would “absolutely” be at Stamford Bridge next season after their Carabao Cup win against Cardiff City on December 16, calling the Manchester City link “100 per cent speculation”.
Maresca was only appointed by Chelsea in June 2024, fresh from guiding Leicester City to the Championship title and automatic promotion to the top flight at the first attempt. In his first season in charge, the London club won the Conference League and the newly-expanded Club World Cup.
The Italian is the sixth manager since the Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital-led takeover of the club in 2022, following Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Bruno Saltor and Frank Lampard, who all took charge of the side in their first season.
Now-USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino spent one year in west London before the two parties mutually parted ways last summer following a sixth-placed finish.