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HERE we go again then.
Chelsea have found their man, Enzo Maresca is the one, the right fit and their leader for the long term after what we are told has been an exhaustive (nearly two weeks!) process.
Long term has been the pitch to the Italian, backed up with a deal which could run to 2030.
Where have we heard that before?
Graham Potter, Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali’s first managerial appointment as owners, was sold the dream of a new Chelsea, no more hire and fire – all projects and process.
On appointing the ex-Brighton boss, Boehly said: “We look forward to supporting him in the coming months and years.”
You are our man, you will get time he was told before being sacked after six months.
Mauricio Pochettino, the man who came after Potter (with Bruno Saltor and Frank Lampard in between), was hailed as the ideal fit for the project – the one to take them back to the top.
He left this month despite ending the season strongly as both sides decided they could no longer work together.
Pochettino was not keen on Chelsea’s sprawling structure, which the club would not compromise to fit the coach who had finally got a tune out of their ridiculous squad.
Both previous permanent managers have been crushed and discarded by the gauche money spinning mess that is this new Chelsea.
Potter arrived and was handed a bloated, overpaid and over-valued squad to mould mid-season, one that was further added to in the January.
What was already a difficult task was made harder as figures within the club took up Potter’s time asking him to consult on restructuring the academy and even a new stadium just months into his new job.
Instead of seeing the error of their ways in spending, Chelsea doubled down last summer, splurging huge fees on talented but unproven players for Pochettino.
The Argentine had to put up with a lot – not just his players scrapping over penalties and a crippling injury list.
Football became a sideshow at times, undermined by ludicrous marketing stunts for a Boehly backed film, Argylle, taking place just feet from Pochettino’s dugout during a game against Fulham.
To the owners’ credit, they held fire at points in the season when it appeared Pochettino was done for. But after their faith was rewarded with the return of European football, the two parties went their separate ways.
The baffling desire to sell academy graduate Conor Gallagher in order to make up for wanton spending was a key factor.
Maresca, with minimal managerial experience compared to his predecessors, is unlikely to have the chutzpah to butt heads with his new bosses, who clearly want more of a yes man.
But it is more on Chelsea than their new manager to make this relationship work.
If they want long term, it is time to show it.
Boehly and Eghbali have built and enormous back room team. While Boehly is no longer truly involved day-to-day in terms of decision making, the same cannot be said for his partner in crime.
If things are to work, that has to change. They have expensively, and at times embarrassingly, appointed a hoard of football thinkers and administrators.
Time to step back and let them get on with the football – work with their new manager to get the best out of what they have got and stop becoming the butt of jokes when it comes to spending.
The huge fees paid for players like Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk have weighed them down enormously – a factor that appears not to have been considered too often.
Long term projects do not often start with a billion quid blown in the early days – it is time Chelsea started behaving like a serious club again or risk finding another man who is the perfect fit for their club in a year’s time.
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