AT best, Enzo Maresca has added an item to his end-of-season performance review.
At worst, the Chelsea boss may have brought it forward.
The official word is the club’s owners and bevy of sporting directors/recruitment chiefs always intended, and still intend, to assess Maresca’s position at the start of the summer.
But his still-unexplained outburst, other strange goings on in the last week, and the fact this is Chelsea, mean it would be no surprise if something happened sooner.
Maresca’s own refusal to clarify, or back down from, whatever he meant about “the worst 48 hours” of his Blues reign has only made the situation worse.
There is no denying the fan backlash to the three poor away performances at Leeds, Bournemouth and Atalanta.
Those in charge at Chelsea would also not have been overjoyed by the downturn in form and the way some supporters pinned more of the blame on them than Maresca.
And the Italian knows he cannot escape fierce scrutiny from both groups.
When Maresca talked about a lack of support “in general”, it probably reflected the belief his work is under-appreciated both inside and outside the club.
Maresca feels he deserves more credit from everyone. For leading the Premier League’s youngest ever squad to Champions League qualification, Conference League glory and a lucrative Club World Cup victory last season.
BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK
And, in this campaign, coping pretty well with the injuries and fatigue among the most junior group of players in the most competitive league in the world.
But it is clear Maresca’s main beef is with those with the power to decide whether he will remain as Chelsea boss or go the same way as Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino.
And it seems the lack of backing, either in public or private after the Atalanta defeat, is what sparked Maresca’s bombshell response to a question about Malo Gusto’s role in what should have been a morale-boosting win over Everton.
Twice earlier in this season – after the home defeat by Brighton in September and after questioning of Maresca’s heavy squad rotation in early November – Chelsea made it known behind the scenes the head coach and his selection policy had the full backing of his bosses.
Despite the fact very few people, if anyone, had thought Maresca was in any danger.
Yet after the Atalanta game, there was no such reassurance.
There are claims Maresca was unhappy by the feedback his bosses gave him. But it might also have been a good time for club bosses to balance any private criticism with another message to the wider world that there was no panic.
But there was nothing, and Maresca went on the front foot after the Everton victory.
Yet in the build-up to the 2-0 win, there was one thing Blues bosses wanted to make clear they WERE unhappy about.
When Arsenal fans claimed on social media the Gunners had poached new partner Deel as a future sleeve sponsor – and so scuppered the Blues’ plans to seal a front-of-shirt deal with the payroll and HR platform – there was a very swift reaction from Chelsea.
The story was nonsense, we were told. Chelsea had struck a sleeve deal with FTP instead of Deel, and Deel were never in the running to be an FOS partner for the Blues or anyone else.
The mischievous suggestion from the Arsenal fans that Deel reckoned the Gunners had a bigger global reach than Chelsea was also tackled – hard.
Someone was clearly upset with anyone questioning the club’s commercial acumen.
Yet not a word – either of support or displeasure – about what had been happening on the pitch.
There are a decent number of Chelsea fans who would back Maresca in any row with his bosses.
They feel the squad Maresca has been given to work with should be stronger and deeper considering the £1.5billion that has been spent since the current regime took charge in May 2022.
It is not as if Chelsea are under-staffed when it comes to senior figures in the football department.
In addition to co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, Sam Jewell is director of global recruitment, and Joe Shields director of recruitment and talent.
And in November Chelsea confirmed former Liverpool scouting guru Dave Fallows was joining the set-up.
Don’t hold your breath for them to say anything in public
But how many of the five travel all the way to Cardiff on a Tuesday in December for the Carabao Cup game could be an indication of which way the wind is blowing for Maresca.
MARESCA SNOOKERED
SOME Chelsea fans on social media were enraged by Enzo Maresca’s tactics in the Blues’ defeat away to Atalanta in Bergamo a week ago.
One though, somewhat more passionate than most, was Australian snooker legend Neil Robertson, who posted an outburst at Maresca’s side on social media.
He raged: “You will do well to spend £2billion and play both RB’s in midfield when one of them is world class in that position.
“Not sure I can watch this under-lapping full-back nonsense for much longer.
“The squad as a whole is absolutely bang average, it rotates like we are still in the Conference League.”
NO KELLYMAN
CHELSEA have banned £19m star Omari Kellyman from playing against them in the League Cup against Cardiff.
Unlike the Premier League and FA Cup, loan players are allowed to play against their parent club in the Carabao Cup, if given permission.
Kellyman though, who joined the Blues from Aston Villa last year, will not be given the privilege.
The youngster has been in fine form for Cardiff City this campaign after battling back from an awful injury spell, with two goals in his last eight appearances, despite being a substitute in all of them.
That includes a goal in his last appearance against Doncaster, where he played 76 minutes as an attacking midfielder.
FAMILY AFFAIR
FOOTBALL is a small world and often a family business.
Take the Uefa Youth League game between Atalanta and Chelsea, for instance.
Coaching the Italian club’s Under-19 team was Giovanni Bosi.
Back in 1995 Bosi played for Ascoli against Notts County in the final of the Anglo-Italian Cup, a short-lived competition for non top-flight teams in the two countries.
During the second half, County brought on a sub named Michael Emenalo – who would later become Chelsea’s director of football and now holds the same position for the Saudi Pro League.
The trainee player at County responsible for cleaning Emenalo’s boots at the time was Shaun Derry, the future Premier League midfielder and coach.
Among the Chelsea players facing Bosi’s Atalanta team 30 years later was Emenalo’s son, Landon, and Derry’s son, Jesse.
Derry junior scored twice in the 3-1 win and was directly up against Atalanta wing back Giovanni Percassi – who is the son of club CEO Luca.
The victory completed an impressive group stage for Calum McFarlane’s side, with five wins out of six.
It is a decent sign of progress under the new youth development regime, following the departure of long-serving academy directors Neil Bath and Jim Fraser in 2024.
HODDLE TRIBUTE
THE technical director of Chelsea’s academy, Glenn van der Kraan, is named after former Blues player/manager Glenn Hoddle.
But it was Hoddle’s time at Tottenham which influenced the decision on what to call him.
Van Der Kraan is the son of Dutch journalistic legend Marcel, the man you ring first if you want to know anything about football in the Netherlands and beyond.
Marcel, who loved Hoddle as a player, has two other sons with his British wife.
Kevin is, you guessed it, named in tribute to his dad’s other favourite player of the era, Kevin Keegan.
And the third brother, Jamie? The reasons for this choice are less clear, but not thought to be related to former Liverpool stars Redknapp and Carragher.
RUTHLESS GRAN
MOST modern young Brazilians were inspired to get into football by watching Neymar, and Chelsea’s Andrey Santos is no different there.
However, few of them have been told to start kicking a ball because their Granny thinks they are fat.
The Blues midfielder has revealed that he started playing at the age of four because his grandmother wanted him to lose weight.
Speaking in the club programme over the weekend, Santos said: “I started early in Brazil, at four-years-old, because I was a little bit fat and my grandmother sent me to football to lose some kgs!”
Santos also revealed that he found a Brazilian father when moving to Chelsea in Thiago Silva.
The former Chelsea defender, a key figure during his time at Stamford Bridge, helped Santos settle in west London and took the then 18-year-old out for dinner.
Santos said: “Thiago Silva helped me a lot, he was like a dad for me.”
