Enzo Maresca’s appointment as Chelsea’s new manager is almost there. He is currently the manager of Leicester City and is about to be named Chelsea’s new head coach. The negotiations are moving along quickly and Chelsea anticipates closing the deal shortly.
Maresca recently guided Leicester to the Championship title in an outstanding campaign for the team. Senior Chelsea officials will meet with Maresca in Marbella where he is currently on vacation after Leicester gave Chelsea permission to speak with him.
A compensation package worth an estimated £10 million is currently being negotiated.
Co-owner Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital have received strong recommendations for Maresca from Chelsea’s decision-makers Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart who are the sporting directors.
Joe Shields, the recruitment director at Chelsea and a former colleague of Maresca at Manchester City has also offered heartfelt recommendations.
Particularly since Kieran McKenna withdrew from consideration, Maresca has become the front-runner over Roberto De Zerbi and Thomas Frank. With flexible terms and built-in break clauses, Chelsea intends to extend its offer to Maresca for a maximum of five years.
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Maresca’s experience as a tactical advisor to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City is one of his main advantages. Being the under-23s coach and then Guardiola’s assistant at City, Maresca honed his coaching philosophy. As Manuel Pellegrini’s assistant at West Ham, he also picked up some useful experience.
A core group of Maresca’s Leicester backroom staff including Willy Caballero, the former goalkeeper for the Blues and his assistant manager at Leicester is anticipated to join Chelsea as well. Caballero was a player for Chelsea from 2017 until 2021. Maresca’s tactical style is appealing to Chelsea because it fits in well with the team’s goals.
He frequently uses full-backs and prefers to use formations like 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. Chelsea was impressed by his tactics especially his plans to make the most of important players like Enzo Fernandez.
The 23-year-old World Cup winner for Argentina, Fernandez has struggled to fit in at Chelsea in part because of a hernia that needed surgery.
He has also found it difficult to build a solid rapport with Moises Caicedo. To help Fernandez flourish in Chelsea’s setup Maresca has also suggested a number of tactical changes.
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Following a sixth-place Premier League result, Chelsea’s previous manager Mauricio Pochettino left the team by mutual consent. He left because of disagreements about Pochettino’s influence on transfers and overall plans.
Maresca finds Chelsea’s commitment to the head-coach model appealing. If everything goes as planned Maresca will take over at Stamford Bridge soon.
He will bring new ideas and a new tactical vision with the goal of rejuvenating the team and assisting players like Enzo Fernandez in realizing their full potential.
