The Chelsea job is football's version of being selected for human sacrifice...
I'll eat my hat if Enzo Maresca sees out his five-year contract, writes OLIVER HOLT Enzo Maresca has been appointed Chelsea's new manager on a five-year deal By Oliver Holt Published: 21:00 EDT, 3 June 2024 | Updated: 02:24 EDT, 4 June 2024 e-mail View comments It is a time, I am sure, of great celebration for Enzo Maresca. A time when he has been anointed Chelsea head coach, a time when all his brilliant work at Leicester City in the season just passed has been recognised and rewarded with a promotion to one of the biggest jobs in the game. But it is hard to look at what lies ahead at Stamford Bridge without worrying for him.
Not in a financial sense, of course. The five-year deal that has taken him and his small army of staff to west London should see him set for life. His career prospects, though, are very much in the balance.
Because coaching Chelsea, under the current ownership of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, is as close to The Impossible Job as it gets in English football at the moment. Getting the job is a cause for celebration, sure, as long as you're aware it's football's version of being selected for human sacrifice. It's an honour, you get treated like a God for a little while, you get flattered and fattened up.
And then one of the two co-sporting directors says it's your fault that you're not making sense of the chaos and someone takes you out for dinner at a nice restaurant in Mayfa.
