Chelsea officially announce the sacking of manager Enzo Maresca..

Chelsea officially announced on their website on Thursday that their Italian manager Enzo Maresca had been sacked effective immediately.

According to Chelsea's official statement, the search for a new manager is in full swing, and an announcement is expected within days.

Shortly afterward, Sky Sports' renowned Italian transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano, exclusively revealed more details about the complete breakdown in the relationship between Maresca and Chelsea.

Romano stated that minor frictions had already occurred between the two sides before the summer transfer window closed last year.

At that time, Maresca wanted to urgently sign a replacement to fill the void left by defender Levi Colwill, who suffered a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament tear, but this was rejected by the management.

Since then, an irreconcilable feud has developed between the two sides. The overbearing nature of Chelsea's co-owners, Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, their penchant for meddling in team management, and their manipulation of transfers have increasingly frustrated Maresca. 

However, what truly caused the relationship between the two sides to plummet to a freezing point was not merely Chelsea's apparent excuse of "being ill" after being held to a draw by Everton, but rather their fear that the Italian coach might "say something that could damage the club's image" and thus choose to have him absent from the post-match press conference.

That was the real reason which led to Maresca's cryptic remark during an interview after the New Year's Eve match against Bournemouth, where he described it as "the most agonizing 48 hours of my life."

Romano revealed that Maresca had met with Chelsea's management before that match to publicly discuss some misunderstandings, but the meeting ended badly when Todd Boehly and Eghbali both felt the former Leicester City manager's arguments were unreasonable.

This became the catalyst which The Guardian claimed and confirmed that the relationship between the two sides had deteriorated to the point of "never speaking to each other again."

Regarding his successor, Romano confirmed the Guardian's report, stating that Liam Rosenior, the young English manager at sister club Strasbourg, is the primary target.

Boehly and Eghbali are even planning to find a suitable coach to succeed Rosenior in order to expedite the managerial changes between Chelsea and Strasbourg.

However, as of press time, he still have not heard which coach has been specifically chosen as the Ligue 1 dark horse's potential successor.

Furthermore, contrary to many other online reports, Romano said that despite being sacked by Chelsea, Maresca remains the top potential successor within the Manchester City board.

However, everything depends on whether Pep Guardiola decides to step down at the end of the season.

The 45-year-old Maresca will replace current US national team manager Mauricio Pochettino as Chelsea manager in June 2024.

During his 18-month spell managing the Blues, Maresca coached the Premier League giants in 92 matches across all competitions, achieving 55 wins, 16 draws, and 21 losses, with a win percentage of 59.78%, where he helped the Blues achieve the UEFA Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup double.