Chelsea Confirms Enzo Maresca As New Coach

Chelsea have confirmed the appointment of Enzo Maresca on a five‑year contract, the new manager ­having accepted the challenge of ­returning the club to the ­Champions League as a bare minimum. The 44‑year‑old ­Italian led Leicester to the Championship title last season, his only full campaign as a head coach.

 He succeeds ­Mauricio ­Pochettino, who left ­Chelsea by mutual consent two weeks ago.

Maresca becomes the fifth mana­ger in the two-year Chelsea ownership of Behdad Eghbali and Todd ­Boehly, after Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Frank Lampard and ­Pochettino. The list does not include Bruno Saltor, who took interim charge for one game in April 2023 after Potter’s departure.

The length of Maresca’s contract which has a club option of a further year is significant; Pochettino was given two years, plus a one-year club option, and it is part of the owners’ desire to go in a different direction.

The season under Pochettino ended with five successive ­Premier League wins, a sixth-placed ­finish and Europa Conference League qualification, which was an improvement on 12th place from 2022-23. Yet ­turbulence was rarely far away, the feeling Pochettino was an imperfect fit for the owners hard to ignore. Many of the players were unhappy to see Pochettino go.

Maresca, who officially starts on 1 July, has bought into his role in the club’s structure. Whereas ­Pochettino sought greater power, ­including over recruitment, Maresca is happy to ­concentrate on coaching and seeking to fulfil the owners’ ambitions, which they outlined in the programme for the final game of the season, against Bournemouth.