Enzo Maresca emerges as Chelsea’s main target, with Leicester set for managerial approach

Born in Italy in 1980, he managed to guide Leicester to the Championship title in his first season as Foxes boss.

His managerial career began at Italian minnows Ascoli before being snapped up by Man City in 2020 to lead their elite development squad.

He led the youth team to the Premier League 2 title in his one season working for the Citizens – with Cole Palmer in the side.

His first senior job was at Parma, but he was sacked after just a few months after failing to impress.

Despite the fact that the team plays in Serie B and Maresca has an impressive squad, he has not been able to put them on the road to promotion.

He returned to Man City and worked as one of Pep Guardiola’s assistants for the 2022/23 season when they won the Treble.

He took charge of relegated Leicester last summer and made an immediate impact as the Foxes won the Championship title.

Maresca showed his dedication to the job by living at the training ground for the first two months of his appointment.

He is considered a Pep disciple and said: “For a coach, it is important to have the mentality of a chess player.”

During his playing career he played under Carlo Ancelotti and Marcello Lippi – and alongside former Brighton boss Roberto de Zerbi.

Chelsea’s longest-serving manager under the club’s new owners has left by mutual consent.

The fact that Mauricio Pochettino lasted just 325 days underlines what a basket case of a club he has become.

You might expect a manager to lose his job after five games FREE a win but only Chelsea could lose theirs after five wins on the spin.

When supporters wrote an open letter to chairman Todd Boehly and his side Behdad Eghbali in March, they expressed their fears that their beloved Chelsea would become a “laughing stock on and off the pitch”.

It’s much more than that now with the departure of the manager who finally seemed to get a tune out of a team billed as “£1billion jobs” just over two months ago when they collapsed to beat Liverpool’s youth team in the Carabao Cup final. .

Read Andy Dillon’s full take on Pochettino’s sacking and what it means here.