Chelsea fans plan protest in solidarity with sacked former manager Enzo Maresca against club owners..
2026-01-03 10:40
The Athletic exclusive reported on Friday that, Chelsea fans plan a protest in front of Stamford Bridge next week before their home game against Brentford, in solidarity with sacked former manager Enzo Maresca, against the club's owners for "systematically destroying the club's operation model."
The report said, fans are furious after The Guardian and Fabrizio Romano revealed the reasons for the complete breakdown in Maresca's relationship with the owners, and are angered by the club's owners, especially Behdad Eghbali, who had repeatedly being blamed as the main culprit behind the falling out between several managers and the club.
Furthermore, the fans' anger stems from the Blues' tendency to relentlessly spend money on acquiring as many wonderkids as possible since Eghbali and Todd Boehly took over the club, their severe tendency to marginalize existing and older players, and the team's month-long period of poor form. These factors have become the final straw for the fans' growing frustration with the owners.
The report added that the protest was initiated by a fan group called "Chelsea is not a Never-Ending Project" via X (Twitter), and reportedly hundreds of fans have already expressed their willingness to participate.
Meanwhile, fans from the other Premier League top five – Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur – surprisingly expressed understanding and sympathy for Chelsea fans' plan, and publicly called for intervention from the UK's independent football regulator to regulate the improper management practices of Eghbali and Boehly.
Subsequently, the media outlet's renowned English transfer journalist David Ornstein, provided further details about the reasons behind Maresca's complete falling out with Chelsea.
Ornstein added that, in fact, before he revealed weeks earlier that Maresca had been handpicked by Manchester City as a potential successor to Pep Guardiola, the Italian coach had already held two private talks with the Cityzens.
According to his contract, Maresca truthfully reported Manchester City's approaches to Chelsea's management on two separate occasions, with the first approach occurring in October.
Despite not violating any employment clauses, the club's two owners still believe Enzo Maresca "betrayed" Chelsea, with Eghbali deliberately distancing himself from Maresca since then.
Its sister club, Strasbourg's young English manager Liam Rosenior, remains the most likely successor and is expected to officially take over as Chelsea manager next week.
Strasbourg is still finalizing Rosenior's successor, but this process is believed to be completed before the end of this weekend.
Ornstein also said that despite the widespread criticism, Eghbali and Boehly will not change their current methods of managing Chelsea. Therefore, even if Rosenior does become Maresca's successor, the Ligue 1 dark horse's manager will still have to adapt to Eghbali and Boehly's "excessive interference in the club's management."
Finally, he also confirmed that U21s team manager Calum McFarlane will temporarily take over as interim first-team manager for this week's Premier League match against Manchester City.
