Leicester City‘s championship-winning manager Enzo Maresca has been named the favourite to take over the vacant Chelsea manager role after Mauricio Pochettino’s exit from the Blues.
Amongst a recent whirlwind of transfer gossip, the 44-year-old has found himself at the top of the bookies’ list of an eclectic mix of favourites. The Italian’s odds to take the reins at Stamford Bridge have been slashed this week according to local news source the Leicestershire Mercury and he’s now the favourite.
Maresca finds himself ahead of the likes of Ipswich Town manager Kieran Mckenna and the former Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi who are two other notable names to have been shortlisted for the job. Pochettino’s successor will be the fourth permanent Chelsea boss in just over two years at a club that has become notorious for its revolving door of managers.
Maresca has attracted the gaze of Todd Boehly and his Chelsea team after a storming Championship campaign that saw the Foxes win the league by one point ahead of Mckenna’s Ipswich. The former Manchester United coach is perhaps attracting even more attention than the Foxes boss, being linked with a host of top sides over the past few days.
The Leicester boss, who spent his career as a journeyman midfielder playing for the likes of West Brom and Juventus, is yet another graduate of the Pep Guardiola acadamy of contemporaries turned managers. He’s included in a high-profile list alongside the likes of Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag and Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta to name only a couple.
Maresca sandwiched an unsuccessful spell in 2021/22 as manager at then-Serie B side Parma between two years working as a coach at Manchester City, winning the treble with the Citizens in the 2022/23 season as Guardiola’s assistant manager.
The Italian’s season stands loudly in contrast with that of Mauricio Pochettino’s campaign at Chelsea which saw the Argentine win just one game in the opening two months in the league. Pochettino has now been linked with European heavyweights Manchester United and Bayern Munich as a result and perhaps he may not have been the problem at the club.
Writer’s View
Enzo Maresca is not like other promotion specialists that the Championship has bred down the years and with the recent success of many of Pep’s students, notably Xabi Alonso and his unbeaten Leverkusen team this year, Foxes fans will see the Italian as a real component in reaffirming Leicester’s place as a Premier League club.
Therefore, Leicester fans will not be happy with the news that their man is being courted by Chelsea who no matter what, carry weight in any negotiation due to the size of the Premier League outfit. Fans might take solace in the fact that Maresca has previously stated his preference to stay at a club for multiple years instead of jumping from club to club.
For Chelsea, the move would certainly be a gamble, especially after Pochettino had started to seem to be getting a song out of his players, however, high risk can deliver high reward and a squad of young and impressionable players could be the perfect fit for the Leicester man if the bright lights prove tempting enough.
