Chelsea are getting closer to zeroing in on their ultimate choice of manager to replace Mauricio Pochettino, who left the club by mutual agreement at the end of the season.
As “reach” candidates like Jose Mourinho and Thomas Tuchel start withering away on the transfer rumor mill, it appears Chelsea are most interested in taking a flier on an up-and-coming manager.
Here are the three most likely candidates for Chelsea to hire as their next manager, ranked in order.
3. Thomas Frank, Brentford
Thomas Frank has been very successful with Brentford in their “Moneyball” approach, and he actually had the Bees flirting with European football last season.
Players like Ivan Toney have flourished in the attack under Brentford, who also produced one of the Premier League’s top goalkeepers in current Arsenal starter David Raya.
Although Frank could be a positive hire for Chelsea, he may remind fans too much of Graham Potter, in the sense that he is a “Moneyball” manager with no real track record of success beyond one positive season with Brentford in the Premier League.
2. Enzo Maresca, Leicester City
Kieran McKenna is expected to stay with Ipswich Town after doing an incredible job of bringing the team back up to the Premier League after so many years away from the top flight.
Meanwhile, Enzo Maresca has immediately brought Leicester City back to the Premiership in his first season, as they were relegated in the 2022/23 season.
Maresca did so despite the fact that Leicester lost their best player, playmaker James Maddison, to Tottenham this past summer upon their relegation.
It appears Chelsea value Maresca highly and want a manager with new ideas who can lead a team to success from adversity, just as Maresca has done with Leicester.
1. Roberto De Zerbi, Brighton
Yet the most likely and best remaining option is Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi, whose release clause is now at less than 10 million euros and in a range that Chelsea can easily afford and justify.
De Zerbi has been successful wherever he has gone, whether that is Shakhtar Donetsk, Sassuolo, or Brighton. His attractive brand of attacking football has made him ever-popular, and yet he gets results, too.
Chelsea want to play highly attractive and effective attacking football with a nucleus of young players who can grow together, and, at Brighton, De Zerbi excelled at getting the most out of his young stars like Kaoru Mitoma and Simon Adingra.
De Zerbi could relish the opportunity to work with Chelsea top talents, especially former Shakhtar star Mudryk. Though the Blues would love De Zerbi to get the most out of Mudryk’s prodigious talent, he could also coax more out of another 100 million euro signing in midfielder Enzo Fernandez.
Brighton reached the Europa League under De Zerbi, which is a feat nobody envisioned them achieving before the Italian manager’s appointment.
He is a proven, exciting manager who can take the next step in his career, with Chelsea looking like the ideal landing spot for him to test himself.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He has been an editor for NFL Spin Zone, Daily DDT for pro wrestling, Autzen Zoo covering the Oregon Ducks, Musket Fire covering the New England Patriots, The Real Champs covering Real Madrid, Old Juve covering Juventus, Rush The Kop covering Liverpool, and Release The Knappen covering Schalke. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.
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