ENZO MARESCA is ill. And the fans and bosses at Chelsea seem to be getting sick of him, too.
Before Christmas, Maresca was being touted as a potential replacement for Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
Yet Guardiola’s former assistant will return to the Etihad on Sunday amid huge doubts about how long he will stay in his current job.
Maresca declared himself too poorly to explain to the media after the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth why the Blues had yet again dropped points from a winning position at home.
But there will have been no escaping the usual post-match debrief with co-owner Behdad Eghbali and the club’s four recruitment chiefs.
The supporters’ frustration was there for all to hear. When Maresca took off Cole Palmer with nearly half an hour to go, boos rang all around Stamford Bridge and some in the Matthew Harding Stand chanted, “You don’t know what you’re doing”.
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Only two weeks earlier, Chelsea’s away fans sang the Italian’s name following a Carabao Cup quarter-final win at League One Cardiff.
It seemed to be a show of support for the manager in his row with bosses over a lack of support at the start of the Blues’ wretched run in December.
But now fans are turning in numbers on both Maresca and the club hierarchy.
Some of the online anger directed at co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart is savage. Things are threatening to turn very toxic indeed.
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If the Blues lose at title-chasing City, then fail to win at neighbours Fulham three days later, they could find themselves in mid-table.
With seven further games across four competitions to come in a nine-match January, the first month of 2026 is set to determine Maresca and Chelsea’s short-term future.
Sacking the Italian before the end of the season and bringing in a FIFTH permanent manager in less than four years would be an admission of failure by the ownership.
But failing to qualify for next season’s Champions League would be a massive blow to the club’s finances and prestige.
Maresca knows poor results and picking needless fights with your superiors is not a recipe for job security.
You start to wonder whether he even cares. Perhaps a chunky pay-off and a new gig, if not at City then back in his native Italy, would suit him quite nicely.
And Chelsea were not exactly discouraging the alleged links between Maresca and City.
A parting of the ways is beginning to feel inevitable.
Whether that happens before the end of the season, when Blues bosses intended to assess the progress under Maresca, remains to be seen.
An upturn in results would postpone the need for a decision. A lack of credible alternatives, either to come in as interim boss or on a permanent basis, is also a factor.
Sources believe an elite-level head coach is very unlikely to want the job.
Being Chelsea manager under the current ownership is challenging. You are asked to deliver consistent results with a constantly-changing squad that is the youngest in the Premier League.
But fans and bosses at Stamford Bridge believe it is not as hard as Maresca is making it look right now.