What's eating Enzo Maresca? Chelsea boss learning that success doesn't always mean stability at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea's 3-1 win in Wales means Maresca can now look forward to a third semi-final since succeeding Maurico Pochettino at the helm in the summer of 2024. The Blues also won the previous two, on their way to lifting the Conference League and Club World Cup last season.

It should also be remembered that in between lifting two trophies, Maresca also led Chelsea back into the Champions League. In that sense, the alleged lack of support for the manager seems strange. However, there's nothing straightforward about the situation at Stamford Bridge.

For starters, there have been doubts over Maresca's ability to get the absolute best out of Chelsea's expensively-assembled squad right from day one. Remember, Leicester City fans weren't especially sorry to see him leave the King Power Stadium - even though he'd overseen the Foxes' promotion to the Premier League.

Their Chelsea counterparts were also underwhelmed by his appointment, given his predecessor, the far more experienced Pochettino, had actually appeared to be making real progress with a bloated and unbalanced squad shortly before the Argentine's surprise exit.

By this time last year, Maresca looked to have won over the most sceptical section of supporters, with "We've got our Chelsea back!" ringing around west London as the Blues propelled themselves into the Premier League title race with five consecutive wins between the tail end of November and the middle of December. However, the always testing festive period couldn't have gone much worse for Maresca, whose team took just three points from five games.

Chelsea rallied to secure Champions League football on the final day, but even during an encouraging run of form there was criticism of Maresca's allegedly ponderous style of play, and he was even targeted by frustrated fans while his team were trailing during a win at Fulham in April.

Winning the Conference League went some way towards strengthening Maresca's position, but it was the Club World Cup triumph that really put him on a firm footing.

Chelsea earned more than £90 million ($120m) from winning FIFA's flagship event but, for Maresca, the 3-0 rout of treble-winning Paris Saint-Germain in the final was utterly priceless.

"I was lucky three years ago to be part of the coaching staff when [Manchester City] won the Champions League," Pep Guardiola's former assistant said. "I lived all these moments, but the truth is that this competition is one of the best in the world. We value it as [much as] the Champions League, if not more so, because it has really been a great triumph for us, and to allow the fans of Chelsea to have the chance for the next four years with this badge, the truth is that for us it is an honour."

The argument that a glorified pre-season tournament was more prestigious than the Champions League was obviously nonsense, but there was certainly no underselling its importance to Maresca - or indeed Chelsea.

For the owners, the Club World Cup represented validation of their unorthodox recruitment strategy, proof that there was a method to the madness; that the unprecedented investment in youth was paying off. Six months on, though, and the doubts have resurfaced.

The main problem is that Chelsea remain one of the most unpredictable teams in football. For example, after battering Barcelona and holding Arsenal to a 1-1 draw despite playing more than an hour with 10 men, Maresca's schizophrenic side then went and lost 3-1 to Leeds United at Elland Road before fading in the second half of a 2-1 defeat away to Atalanta.

Chelsea are essentially a dangerous cup team, capable of beating anyone on their day but lacking the consistency required to sustain a title challenge, and many people have pointed the finger of blame at Maresca, deeming him guilty of rotating his players too regularly.

"We cannot follow up two unbelievable performances with a performance like that," Chelsea legend John Terry said on Tiktok after the loss at Leeds. "It's certainly not going to make you title contenders. Unfortunately, that’s what’s going to cost us.

"We are inexperienced, because if you can't go Leeds away and know what to expect then... You need to go there and show the fight, match Leeds in every single way and then earn your right to play.

"But weak set-pieces, individual mistakes defensively, clearly not good enough... Maybe that's an opportunity for the manager to look at the squad and go 'Okay, rotation is not for me moving forward, I know my best 11 to 14 players and I'll stick with that, and the other players are just going to have to deal with it."

Terry obviously knows a thing or two about winning titles, and he's got a very valid point about the merits of having a settled side. However, is Maresca really to blame? 

For starters, he has no option but to rotate players that barely got a rest during the summer because of the Club World Cup. As he's already pointed out several times, he's having to deal with a plethora of injury issues as it is, with Cole Palmer one of several key men that Maresca says is simply not physically able to play three games a week at the moment. So, asking even more of already exhausted players would be both reckless and irresponsible.

The bigger issue is that for all of the money Chelsea's owners have spent since acquiring the club from Roman Abramovich, a significant chunk of it has been squandered on sub-standard signings. In their haste to hoover up as much young talent as possible, the Blues have repeatedly brought in players no better than the ones already at the club - and, in some cases, worse than those they've discarded.

Essentially, Chelsea are less than the sum of the parts, meaning that Maresca does not have like-for-like replacements at his disposal when he is forced to make changes to his preferred starting 11.

"Most of the rotation we do is because the other one cannot play," he explained in his post-match press conference at Elland Road. "But I always try to be honest with you: in football, in life, in any job, there are levels. Andrey [Santos], unfortunately, is not Moi (Caicedo). Tosin (Adarabioyo) is not Wes (Fofana). They have different skills. They are different. If I say to you that Andrey is like Moi, you can understand for yourself that I am a liar.

"There is a level at all jobs. Like me. Plenty of managers are better than me. Some not. But there is a level at all jobs. So, for me, [this] is the reality."

One cannot help but wonder, then, if Maresca has come to the conclusion that there's only so much he can do at Chelsea and that it's time to change the narrative. There is undeniably an argument to be made that his infuriatingly inconsistent side is merely a reflection of the constant state of flux at the club, and that achieving success amid such instability warrants at least some sort of promise of job security from his bosses rather than incessant scrutiny. 

His lack of influence over transfers was also laid bare back in August when he made little attempt to hide his desire for an adequate replacement for the injured Levi Colwill.

"The club know exactly what I think," Maresca said a fortnight before the summer window closed. "We are looking for an internal solution but as I said, the club know exactly what I think. I think we need a central defender."

One didn't arrive, though, and Maresca moved on (at least publicly) - but the frustration he'd been keeping inside after the criticism that followed the losses to Leeds and Atalanta boiled over on Saturday. It has been claimed that Maresca's outburst was impulsive, an emotional reaction to the relentless pressure he's under, but it was noteworthy that he didn't try to back away from or even clarify his cryptic comments during his very next press conference, ahead of the Cardiff quarter-final, perhaps because he's simply tired of having to defend his record - and not just to journalists.

"I can speak Italian, my language, Spanish very well, French very well, and English more or less, so I think when I want to say something, I'm quite clear," he said. "I already spoke after the game, I don't need to add more. It's done, it's finished." It's not, though. Far from it, in fact.

After rumours that his attack was aimed at Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali, speculation over Maresca's future has only intensified after The Athletic's ever-reliable David Ornstein revealed that Maresca is one of the leading contenders to replace Guardiola as Manchester City manager should the Catalan decide to step down at the end of the season. However, the report couldn't have come at a better time for Maresca, as it suggests he's more appreciated at the Etihad than he is at Stamford Bridge, thus adding another layer of intrigue to an already fascinating affair. 

Indeed, when both Danny Murphy and Jamie Carragher pointed after Maresca's perceived power play that he'd no chance of winning a war with the owners at Stamford Bridge, it felt like a fair assessment of the situation. But maybe he knows what he's doing. Maybe the more pertinent question now is not 'Could Chelsea sack Maresca?' - but whether he actually wants them to...