{"id":221718,"date":"2026-01-01T13:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/221718\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T13:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:27:08","slug":"enzo-maresca-leaves-position-as-chelsea-head-coach-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/221718\/","title":{"rendered":"Enzo Maresca leaves position as Chelsea head coach | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enzo Maresca has left his position as Chelsea head coach, the Premier League club has announced.<\/p>\n

The Italian manager’s departure had been expected following a breakdown in relations with key figures at Stamford Bridge, Sky Sports News reported.<\/p>\n

The club said: “During his time at the club, Enzo led the team to success in the UEFA Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup.<\/p>\n

“Those achievements will remain an important part of the club’s recent history, and we thank him for his contributions to the club.<\/p>\n

“With key objectives still to play for across four competitions including qualification for Champions League football, Enzo and the club believe a change gives the team the best chance of getting the season back on track.<\/p>\n

“We wish Enzo well for the future.”<\/p>\n

The former Leicester boss was appointed as successor to Mauricio Pochettino in June 2024.<\/p>\n

After 18 months in charge, he departs with the club fifth in the Premier League table – 15 points adrift of leaders Arsenal – following one win from their last seven top-flight games.<\/p>\n

Maresca, 45, guided Chelsea to Champions League qualification via a fourth-placed finish last season, in addition to winning the Conference League and Club World Cup.<\/p>\n

His contract was due to run until 2029, with Chelsea holding an option for a further 12 months.<\/p>\n

\"Maresca<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Maresca in December. Pic: PA<\/p>\n

Speculation of a rift with the Chelsea hierarchy had grown after Maresca claimed following his side’s 2-0 win over Everton on 13 December he had endured his “worst 48 hours” at the club because “many people didn’t support me and the team”.<\/p>\n

He then repeatedly refused to clarify the comments.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Anthony Joshua pays respects to friends killed in road crash<\/a>
What we know about deadly New Year’s fire at Swiss ski resort<\/a><\/p>\n

Maresca’s final match was Tuesday’s 2-2 draw at home to Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

The club return to action on Sunday away to Manchester City, the first of nine fixtures across four competitions during a packed January schedule.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Liam Rosenior, the head coach of French club Strasbourg, who are owned by Chelsea’s parent company BlueCo, has emerged as the early favourite to replace Maresca among bookmakers.<\/p>\n

Former Barcelona head coach Xavi, Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner, Fulham’s Marco Silva and Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola are other potential candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enzo Maresca has left his position as Chelsea head coach, the Premier League club has announced. The Italian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-221718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}