Yesterday the news was finally confirmed – after a week of waiting, Enzo Maresca was announced as the new Chelsea manager.
But how did a coach with just a season and a bit of management experience come to find himself as Chelsea manager? The Athletic explained the whole process in their in depth piece on the matter published this afternoon.
First up, it’s interesting to note that the two year contract handed to Pochettino was considered a sign of “reservations” from Chelsea’s end, from the moment he was appointed. That’s baffling – why appoint someone you’ve got reservations about before they’ve even walked in the door? No wonder it lasted just 12 months.
Next you see which candidates were actually taken seriously – and that was pretty clear from just following the rumours. Thomas Frank and Kieran McKenna were the other two who reached a sort of informal interview stage with Chelsea.
How three became one
But KcKenna’s inexperience counted against him, and in the end he was ruled out, leaving Frank and Maresca in the mix.
This piece claims that the battle was lost for Frank on the “style of play front.” It seems harsh – Frank has his Brentford team playing a pretty ugly but effective style of football because it’s the best way of getting results. Nobody really knows what he would do with the players of the quality Chelsea have.
Another factor seems to have been the three years left on Frank’s contract at Brentford. That would guarantee a huge compensation payout from the Blues to Brentford to even be able to engage in formal talks with the coach.
They’ve already had to pay Leicester £10m for Maresca – presumably they feared Frank would be significantly more.
So in the end, the job was Maresca’s.
