Todd Boehly has been warned not to make a ‘ridiculous’ mistake by sacking Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca.
Chelsea have suffered an alarming slump since they missed the chance 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 top 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 replace Mauricio Pochettino after the early signs of promise but the Blues may well finish in a worse position under the Italian.
A sixth-placed finish last year did little to convince 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 would be a ‘ridiculous’ outcome.
‘They fired Mauricio Pochettino after he not only had taken them to sixth – which was better than the year before – but improved them as 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 still sack him when he finishes sixth… Chelsea are sixth right now and they’re actually doing the opposite, they started really well under Maresca and have started to fade away which makes me concerned.
‘I just don’t understand how you can fire Pochettino when they improved and finished sixth but then keep Maresca after this season.
‘I think they should keep him – stop firing managers. But, from their perspective, if they’ve done that, I don’t see how they won’t do another firing, which would be ridiculous.
‘They’ve got to start sorting out the players’ attitudes I think, the body language doesn’t look great and they’re all too young. That’s the problem for me.
‘But you’ve got to keep Maresca unless they plummet down to tenth in which case there’s obviously a major problem. You have to keep him, try and get some stability at the club.’
Speaking after Chelsea lost to Brighton for the second time in six days, Carragher said it would be a ‘disaster’ for the Blues to go another 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 so far and still believe he can bring success back to the club.
There is sympathy for Maresca who has been dealt a number of injury setbacks in recent weeks and a feeling that Chelsea are in fact ahead of schedule.
Following two poor performances against Brighton, Maresca will be desperate for Chelsea to get back to winning ways when they return to action this weekend against Aston Villa.
Unai Emery’s Villa have struggled for consistency in the Premier League this season – currently sitting ninth – but have had to juggle a Champions League group campaign in which they finished eighth to qualify for the knockout stages.
Chelsea thumped Aston Villa 3-0 in the corresponding fixture at the start of December with arguably their last truly impressive performance under Maresca.
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