Maresca made Chelsea world champions. Six months later, he’s gone. What happened?

The reigning FIFA Club World Cup champions’ coach is out of a job. Enzo Maresca’s 18-month tenure at Chelsea ended on New Year’s Day after a dramatic, quick breakdown in his working relationship with senior figures at the Premier League club.

Recriminations abound following the news — so much so, in fact, that there is currently a legal dispute over whether Maresca resigned or if he was sacked. In Thursday’s statement, Chelsea opted for the deliberately ambiguous phrase «parted company» as the lawyers thrash out just what payoff Maresca is entitled to — if any.

The Italian was under contract until 2029 with the option of a further year, bringing him in line with Chelsea’s clubwide policy of signing staff and players for the long term. That certainty of contract is designed to cultivate stability, as was the club’s plan to review Maresca’s position at the end of the 2025-26 season, his second in charge, attempting to insulate him from any buffeting by short-term results.

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Maresca won the Club World Cup, the UEFA Conference League and delivered UEFA Champions League play following a fourth-place finish in his sole full Premier League campaign. He was named Premier League Manager of the Month for November.

But with 2026 just a day old, the Blues are now looking to bring another permanent head coach to the club’s Cobham training ground — the fifth since owners BlueCo took charge of the club in May 2022 — following a run of one win from seven games. They sit fifth in the Premier League, 15 points adrift of leaders Arsenal. So what happened?

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Maresca’s structural issues at Chelsea

Sources told ESPN that Chelsea liken their sporting structure to that of reigning Premier League champions Liverpool — specifically where the head coach is one important voice in a wider team rather than the dominant figure. The theory is that a club shaped in this way is not overly reliant on the man in the dugout, ensuring any managerial change does not lead to a sudden loss or reshaping of the club’s identity. Manchester United‘s post-Sir Alex Ferguson lurches between styles as managers have come and gone over the last decade is therefore seen as the route to avoid.

Multiple sources at the club have told ESPN that Maresca «knew what he was signing up for» in this regard when agreeing to succeed Mauricio Pochettino in the summer of 2024. Maresca had guided Leicester City to the Championship title in the previous season, but joining Chelsea was a significant step up and it initially appeared a logical fit for a relatively inexperienced manager to operate in Chelsea’s model. The head coach receives technical feedback from the club’s support team after every game, with the ownership, chiefly represented by Behdad Eghbali, a regular and engaged presence.

Maresca brought six members of staff with him from Leicester, but club sources have told ESPN that Chelsea made it clear the head coach would not be in sole charge of picking players, controlling the medical department (more on that later) or steering recruitment. After Dave Fellows joined the club in November 2025, there are now five sporting directors working at Chelsea. Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stuart lead the quintet, supported by Joe Shields and Sam Jewell.

Sources have told ESPN that over time, Maresca began to grow frustrated with the level of input from outside his personal support staff. Club sources suggest the 45-year-old believed he had earned the right to a larger say as a result of the success he had delivered, finishing the 2024-25 season by qualifying for the Champions League and winning the Conference League. Those triumphs were then topped in the most unexpected way as Chelsea defied stifling climates and the debilitating effect of a long domestic season to win FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup in the United States.

But Chelsea remained adamant: Their structure was immovable, and so Maresca began to take his irritations public. He voiced his frustration at the club’s refusal to sign a center back in August following a potentially season-ending knee injury to Levi Colwill. Then, in December, Maresca effectively started the countdown to his exit by publicly declaring the buildup to Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Everton was the «worst 48 hours» he had endured at Chelsea.

The comments shocked members of his own staff, and one source suggested Maresca’s agent, Jorge Mendes, rang the club in search of an explanation. By refusing to elaborate or explain at subsequent news conferences, speculation ran wild and instability engulfed the club. Within 19 days, the club announced Maresca was gone.

Maresca vs. Chelsea’s medical department

Sources have told ESPN that Maresca’s «worst 48 hours» comment was referring to a long-running dispute with the club’s medical department.

Part of Chelsea’s model dictates that the medical department operates independently of the head coach. Their advice on player load and injuries is passed to the head coach with the expectation it will be followed in order to ensure player welfare.

There are conflicting suggestions about what came next. Sources have told ESPN that there were several times where Maresca disregarded the recommendations made to him by the club’s medical department. Maresca would no doubt contest that he ever risked a player’s health in his decision-making, but sources have told ESPN that internally, concerns were raised over his use of certain players. He would be told to limit the number of minutes each player would receive when returning from injury, but sources suggest that on multiple occasions, he kept players on the field longer than advised.

One source close to Maresca told ESPN that he felt the advice he was given from the medical team and elsewhere in feedback meetings came close to effectively picking his team for him or dictating when substitutions should be made. However, any suggestion that Maresca was not in control of team selection was strongly rejected by one club source.

The «worst 48 hours» comment referred to this ongoing friction. After drawing with Arsenal in November, Maresca was asked whether Reece James could reproduce his excellent individual display in midweek after his recent injury problems. «No,» began his blunt reply.

Maresca chose his first win in five matches to make the statement, at the end of his media activity after the Everton game, having felt a lack of support internally for his position. It wasn’t the first time.

Fans, feeling support and flirting with Man City

Maresca never truly felt the support of Chelsea’s fan base, even in his most successful moments. They rarely sang his name, and it was particularly awkward that when José Mourinho returned to Stamford Bridge with Benfica at the end of September, the former Chelsea boss received more love from the Chelsea fans than Maresca had arguably ever experienced.

Maresca cited a «lack of support» when discussing those «worst 48 hours,» but sources at Cobham have told ESPN that he received backing from the club’s hierarchy in difficult moments this season. He was told that the club acknowledged the difficulties of a potential 65-game season across multiple competitions and that BlueCo had a track record of not reacting to short-term results, with Pochettino’s end-of-season review cited as a recent example.

There was a feeling internally that Chelsea could not reiterate their public backing of Maresca every time he encountered difficulties, for fear of that message losing its impact, but there were concerns about his handling of the media. Sources say the club reacted skeptically to Maresca aiming a «f— off» at the club’s critics after they secured Champions League qualification in May. There was also surprise at the level of criticism Maresca aimed at FIFA when Chelsea’s Club World Cup round-of-16 tie against Benfica in Charlotte, North Carolina, was delayed for almost two hours midmatch by rain.

Sources both internally and externally suggest some at the club felt Maresca was not controlling his emotions as would be expected of a Chelsea manager and needed to mature in aspects of the role away from coaching, specifically man-management and messaging.

That messaging was complicated by a flirtation with Manchester City. Although City continue to deny there is a vacancy to discuss, with manager Pep Guardiola having made no decision on his future, sources told ESPN that Chelsea believe Maresca has held discussions with City over the past two months. He is also reported to have attracted interest from Juventus.

There are conflicting suggestions over whether the City links were being courted by Maresca’s agent — he recently changed representatives from Wasserman to Mendes’ Gestifute — or whether there is genuine succession planning taking place. Either way, Maresca was listening, and Chelsea felt this was disrespectful, even if he had let it be known he would be open to signing a new contract at Stamford Bridge should one be offered.

Maresca’s media profile was also a point of friction in other ways. Sources suggest he spoke at an event organized by an Italian newspaper without the club’s permission. And after he failed to appear for his post-Bournemouth media duties last weekend, Maresca had made it known he was considering walking away. The official excuse was that Maresca felt «sick» — however, sources suggest he in fact did not want to explain away another disappointing result in a role where he felt increasingly unsettled.

Worrying trends in performances

There is a reason why this appears last on the list of reasons Maresca left Chelsea. Sources have told ESPN that the timing of the Club World Cup had created a situation where Maresca’s performance was always going to be meaningfully reviewed for the first time at the end of his second season.

The club were determined to give Maresca time to develop — a contract through to 2029, with an option to extend it an extra year, is also proof of that. But the fan reaction toward Maresca was threatening to undermine the team’s progress, which had stalled after a promising November in which they emphatically beat Barcelona 3-0 and drew 1-1 with Premier League leaders Arsenal despite playing for almost an hour with 10 men.

Maresca was heavily criticized for the level of rotation though some of this was encouraged by the club, who have adopted a policy of signing young players on long, heavily incentivized contracts, and therefore needed regular opportunities to grow and, cynically, earn better deals. They have, however, dropped 20 points from winning positions in all competitions this season and sources have told ESPN that raised concerns about Maresca’s in-game management.

Maresca was not under urgent pressure to mount a title challenge this season but the signs of promise had been mixed with poor displays — the 3-1 defeat at Leeds United last month was cited internally as an unacceptable performance. That said, he departs with Chelsea as world champions, and he might still have a shot at replacing Guardiola should he leave City. Both sides had reached a point where the world was not enough.