Report: Chelsea, Leicester City's Enzo Maresca Expected to Agree ...
Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
Chelsea received permission from Leicester City to formally interview manager Enzo Maresca, according to The Athletic's David Ornstein.
Ornstein reported the Blues and Maresca are expected to strike a bargain on a contract that would run for at least five years.
Mark Ogden of ESPN reported Leicester could collect around £9 million ($11.5 million) as compensation for allowing the 44-year-old Italian to break his contract and leave.
Maresca's first foray into club management came with Manchester City's youth team in 2020, guiding the side to a Premier League 2 table. From there, he had a brief spell at Parma, which earned just 17 points in his 13 Serie B matches.
After working as the assistant manager under Manchester City's Pep Guardiola for the 2022-23 season, Maresca was hired by Leicester.
The Foxes gained promotion back to the top flight after winning the EFL Championship, and their on-pitch identity helped burnish their manager's reputation. According to FBref, Leicester led the league in expected goals (84.9) and had the second-highest possession rate (61.6 percent) behind Southampton.
While Maresca's stock is clearly on the rise, his likely hire will be met with plenty of skepticism.
Targeting a coach with a progressive playing style and experience in developing talent makes sense for Chelsea when it has spent so much on signing young players with a lot of room to grow.
But Maresca is totally unproven with a club of this size and ambition.
Taking the Leicester job meant accepting a level of pressure because immediate promotion was the goal. Moving to Stamford Bridge and taking Chelsea back to the pinnacle of English football is a much bigger challenge.
Then there's the reputation Chelsea's ownership has already built since assuming control in May 2022.
Thomas Tuchel got the boot months after the group's arrival, the Champions League title he delivered in 2021 along with UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup titles buying him little internal equity.
Graham Potter succeeded him and was ostensibly tasked with executing the same long-term vision that will be laid before Maresca. Instead, he didn't even make it seven full months before he was out of a job.
Like Tuchel, Mauricio Pochettino was a more proven solution and one who consistently helped nurture younger stars at his previous stops. He left by mutual consent after one year of what sounds like an ill-fated partnership.
Whether Maresca is actually good enough for Chelsea and whether he'll be afforded the time he needs are two questions that will loom large over the ensuing months.
