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Chelsea confirm appointment of Enzo Maresca on five-year deal
Published 22:01 30 May 2024 BST
Updated 22:01 30 May 2024 BST
Homesport
They also have the option to extend it by a further year
Chelsea have confirmed the appointment of Enzo Maresca as their new head coach.
Maresca joins from Leicester City where he won the SkyBet Championship in his one and only season at the club.
The two-time European champions have given the Italian a five-year deal, including an option to extend by an extra year, and have reportedly paid Leicester in the region of £10m in compensation.
His backroom team will also include former Chelsea goalkeeper and Champions League winner, Willy Caballero.
He replaces Mauricio Pochettino, who left by mutual consent earlier this month.
How will Maresca fare?
Having won the Championship in his first season in charge as a manager, this will only be the third season in his career that Maresca has taken the senior managerial role.
Before Leicester and his time as a coach at Manchester City Maresca was in charge of Italian side Parma but was sacked after 14 games in charge.
At Stamford Bridge there will be familiar faces for the Italian. As well as director of football Joe Shields, the 44-year-old knows Cole Palmer and Romeo Lavia very well having been their head coach when he was in charge of Manchester City's Under 23s side.
Palmer had an excellent first season in west London, scoring 22 Premier League goals and collecting numerous rewards while Lavia will be hoping that he can make an impact next year after playing just 32 minutes in an injury-ravaged campaign.
Who will Leicester bring in to replace Maresca?
Leicester now face a similar task to what they did 12 months ago: finding a new manager.
Whoever comes in for the Foxes will be walking into a very difficult tasks as the East Midlanders await to hear the outcome of their punishment for breaching profit and sustainability rules.
The likelihood is a points deduction - similarly to Everton and Nottingham Forest - while they may have to sell some first team stars to balance the books.
Carlos Corberan of West Brom and Graham Potter appear to be among the favourites, according to the bookies.
Potter in particular has been admired by Leicester for a long time and they did try to bring him to the King Power Stadium after sacking Brendan Rodgers only for the former Brighton boss to turn them down having only recently been sacked by Chelsea at that point.
David Moyes is another name that has been mentioned.
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