Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali has broken his silence on the mid-season exit of Enzo Maresca<\/b>, acknowledging that the managerial change has negatively affected the team\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n
Maresca departed Stamford Bridge on New Year\u2019s Day 2026 after 18 months in charge. During his tenure, the Italian delivered significant success, steering the Blues to a top-four Premier League finish in his first season while securing the UEFA Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup trophies.<\/p>\n
Despite these achievements the most silverware under the current ownership Chelsea opted for a change amid reported tensions. The club quickly turned to Liam Rosenior <\/b>as his replacement, but the Blues have struggled to find consistency in the 2025-26 season, currently fighting in the Premier League\u2019s upper half.<\/p>\n
In a rare public comment, Eghbali addressed the decision: the club\u2019s policy avoids in-season managerial shifts, but circumstances forced their hand. \u201cIt\u2019s not a change we wanted to make<\/b>,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt\u2019s a change that had a bit of a negative impact\u2026 when you\u2019re changing systems and personnel, and it\u2019s one we\u2019ve got to fight our way out of.<\/b>\u201d<\/p>\nPlayer Reactions and Rosenior\u2019s Task<\/h3>\n
Several Chelsea players expressed disappointment over Maresca\u2019s exit. Marc Cucurella stated he would not have made the call, while Enzo Fernandez admitted he struggled to understand the reasoning. Maresca had built a clear identity and structure, earning high regard from the squad.<\/p>\n
Eghbali backed Rosenior, noting he possesses the right attributes for success at this level, though he stressed football remains a results-driven business. With key fixtures remaining, including an FA Cup semi-final push, the co-owner believes the season\u2019s story is still unfolding.<\/p>\n
The managerial switch highlights the challenges of Chelsea\u2019s ambitious project under new ownership. As the club battles to regain momentum, fans and observers will watch closely to see if Rosenior can stabilize the ship and deliver the consistency needed for sustained success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali has broken his silence on the mid-season exit of Enzo Maresca, acknowledging that the managerial change\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":49082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5229,2549,5178],"class_list":["post-49081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-behdad-eghbali","tag-chelsea-fc","tag-enzo"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49081"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49085,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49081\/revisions\/49085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}