Todd Boehly has been urged to resist the temptation of sacking Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca, despite the team’s alarming decline over the past two months.
After a promising start to the season, Chelsea were briefly seen as Liverpool’s biggest title challengers. However, a disastrous run since mid-December has seen them drop to sixth place 17 points off the top and outside the Champions League spots.
Following a humbling 3-0 defeat to Brighton, Maresca admitted his team’s display was “probably” their worst since he took charge last summer.
The poor run has reignited fears that Chelsea could once again pull the trigger on a manager, just as they did with Mauricio Pochettino after a sixth-place finish last season.
Sports broadcaster Rebecca Lowe believes it would be “ridiculous” for Chelsea to sack Maresca but says their previous decisions make his future uncertain.
“They fired Pochettino after he improved Chelsea, finishing sixth, and now they’re in the same position but declining. How does that make sense?” Lowe said on NBC Sports. “I think they should keep Maresca stop firing managers. But based on their past decisions, I don’t see how they don’t sack him too.”
She pointed to Chelsea’s youthful squad and questionable attitudes as a bigger problem than the manager, calling for stability at the club.
Jamie Carragher echoed concerns over Chelsea’s trajectory, warning that missing out on the Champions League again would be a “disaster.”
However, despite growing concerns, the Stamford Bridge hierarchy reportedly still backs Maresca, believing he is ahead of schedule despite injury setbacks.
With pressure mounting, Chelsea will look to bounce back this weekend against an inconsistent Aston Villa side. Their last dominant performance came against Villa in December a 3-0 win. Maresca will be desperate to repeat that result and silence his critics.