Brentford’s Thomas Frank missed out on becoming Chelsea’s new manager due to his style of play according to reports.
The Blues have officially confirmed Enzo Maresca as their new manager with the Italian signing a five year deal with the option of a further year.
Maresca leaves Leicester after just one season in charge having guided the Foxes back to the Premier League by winning the Championship title.
Thomas Frank missed out due to style of play
Following the departure of Mauricio Pochettino Chelsea chiefs quickly drew up a four man shortlist to replace the Argentine.
Roberto De Zerbi and Kieran McKenna joined Frank and Maresca on the list with the Ipswich manager the early front runner for the job.
Frank reportedly held several meetings with Chelsea, but how serious those were remains unknown, and the Dane ultimately missed out on the Stamford Bridge hot seat.
Following confirmation of Maresca’s appointment The Athletic reported that Frank missed out on the style of play front with his football seen as more defensive and not possession based, whilst there were also doubts over whether he suited the Chelsea squad.
The Athletic also add Chelsea had respect for De Zerbi as a manager, but were put off by the number of clubs he had managed in a short period of time, as well as the disagreements with Brighton over transfer policy, so he was never seriously considered.
Maresca will be under pressure to return Chelsea to the Champions League and bring silverware to west London.
The Europa Conference League represents a brilliant opportunity for the 44-year-old to win a trophy in his first season in charge, but Chelsea must first get through a two legged play-off in August.
Maresca is the fifth manager, if you include Bruno Saltor’s one game in charge and third permanent appointment under the new ownership.
This appointment more than any other has to work, but it remains to be seen if Chelsea will give the Italian the time and patience he needs.
I don’t think he ever wanted it.
He’s very comfortable a Brentford and openly said he’ll be there for years unless something special comes along like the Danish national team job.
He’s gone 10 games without a win at the Brentford in the past, 8L’s 2D’s, without a whisper of being sacked. That would not happen at Chelsea.
It’s easy to play an attacking possession based style when you have a Premier League squad in a 2nd tier competition. It’s very different playing that style of football when you have one of the lowest budgets and smallest squads in the Prem. To be honest TF had no choice but to play a defensive low block of 2 when at one point he had 7 1st teamers out injured at the same time. It will be very interesting to see how Maresca fairs now, and would have been interesting to see how he would have got on at Leicester in the Prem. Vincent Company’s Burnley looked impressive 2 seasons ago, yet porous this last campaign.
How relevant is it to call Maresca the fifth manager under this ownership??? Salter was in charge for one game and Lampard was always a caretaker and nothing more. Seems like a bit of a distortion then to say we’ve had five, rather than three proper managers.
Thomas Frank didn’t get the job because he didn’t want it.
What rubbish. Thomas Frank did not “miss out” on the Chelsea job he didn’t want it in the first place it was just the media rumour circus. Thomas Frank is loving life at Brentford because he is part of a family where everyone pulls together unlike Chelsea were it appears, at the moment, that everyone is pulling in different directions