Todd Boehly has been warned to not make a ‘ridiculous’ mistake by sacking Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca.
Chelsea have suffered an alarming slump since they missed the possibility to go top of the Premier League in mid-December.
Maresca’s side briefly threatened to mount a surprise title challenge and were for a period Liverpool’s biggest rival at the highest of the table.
But a dismal run over the past two months has seen Chelsea slip to sixth – 17 points behind Liverpool and two places outside the Champions League places.
Following their latest defeat – a 3-0 loss to Brighton – Maresca said the performance was ‘probably’ his team’s worst since he took over last summer.
Chelsea were hailed for bringing in ex-Leicester City boss Maresca to exchange Mauricio Pochettino after the early signs of promise however the Blues could finish in a worse position under the Italian.
A sixth-placed finish last yr did little to persuade Chelsea’s hierarchy that ex-Tottenham and PSG boss Pochettino would bring major trophies back to Stamford Bridge and he moved on shortly after the season ended.
Given how ruthless Chelsea board’s were with Pochettino, sports broadcaster Rebecca Lowe struggles to see how Maresca avoids the sack with a potentially worse season unfolding in west London, though she insists a firing can be a ‘ridiculous’ end result.
‘They fired Mauricio Pochettino after he not only had taken them to sixth – which was higher than the yr before – but improved them because the season went on, they looked pretty good from February onwards,’ Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher’s The Overlap US colleague said on NBC Sports.
‘You continue to sack him when he finishes sixth… Chelsea are sixth right away they usually’re actually doing the other, they began rather well under Maresca and have began to fade away which makes me concerned.
‘I just don’t understand how you may fire Pochettino after they improved and finished sixth but then keep Maresca after this season.
‘I believe they need to keep him – stop firing managers. But, from their perspective, in the event that they’ve done that, I don’t see how they won’t do one other firing, which can be ridiculous.
‘They’ve got to start out checking out the players’ attitudes I believe, the body language doesn’t look great they usually’re all too young. That’s the issue for me.
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‘But you’ve got to maintain Maresca unless they plummet right down to tenth wherein case there’s obviously a significant problem. You have got to maintain him, try to get some stability on the club.’
Speaking after Chelsea lost to Brighton for the second time in six days, Carragher said it will be a ‘disaster’ for the Blues to go one other season without Champions League football.
But while there are growing fears over Maresca’s position at Chelsea, the Stamford Bridge board are believed to be content with the job he has done to this point and still consider he can bring success back to the club.
There may be sympathy for Maresca who has been dealt a lot of injury setbacks in recent weeks and a sense that Chelsea are actually ahead of schedule.
Following two poor performances against Brighton, Maresca shall be desperate for Chelsea to get back to winning ways after they return to motion this weekend against Aston Villa.
Unai Emery’s Villa have struggled for consistency within the Premier League this season – currently sitting ninth – but have needed to juggle a Champions League group campaign wherein they finished eighth to qualify for the knockout stages.
Chelsea thumped Aston Villa 3-0 within the corresponding fixture at first of December with arguably their last truly impressive performance under Maresca.
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