Chelsea's massive spending in the last few transfer windows has confounded most in the wider world of football, but apparently they continue to remain (somehow) within Profit and Sustainability Rules and Squad Cost Ratios and UEFA's own bizarre financial regulations and everything else that any real football fan could not give a flying - enter your own word here - about.
Their new owners views on building a squad does not just end there as they have employed a similar approach when it comes to finding a manager and since taking over from Roman Abramovich back in 2022 they have already cycled through Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Frank Lampard, Mauricio Pochettino and right now Enzo Maresca appears like he might have some kind of shelf life in the dug out. For those fans who follow MO online sports betting sites for tips and odds on the flutters they make on football, the chances of Maresca being the one to make a success of the role were likely low.
The former Leicester City gaffer is not without his own issues though. The 45 year old Italian former midfielder has already upset plenty of players by freezing them out and putting them in the bomb squad as he seems to have no issues with dealing with a squad that probably out numbers the club's own fans. He also has no concerns about breaking protocol and massively rotating his first team XI in pretty much every game they play.
That latter point has now seen serious criticism go his way after their 2-2 draw with Qarabag in the Champions League during the midweek fixture, and former England captain Wayne Rooney was one of many pundits to weigh in with criticism. Now, many will question if Rooney is the right character to criticise a manager given his own failed exploits in the dug out but with Qarabag being the fifth game in a row that Maresca had made at least seven changes, he was not apologising.
He pointed out that people could say what they wanted, but that he believed in the group of players that he had available and he was going to use them whenever he felt the need to. He also barbed that his current critics were very much on the quiet side when changes were made and they won and he was insistent that the whole 2025/26 campaign involved a significant number of games and he felt it was unfair to ask any single player to potentially feature 65 times.
Maresca does have a point here, and whatever anyone thinks of the expanding European and international calendars, and the Club World Cup campaign, Chelsea will have a longer season than many by the time we get to next May and it is good to see a manager actively trying to avoid burn out as opposed to using it as an excuse.
But even being right in his views on rotation brings everyone straight back to their massive spending and how they have the squad to do just that seemingly without care, but it should be noted that as Maresca spoke about the internationals that he was shuffling around, the Qarabag match again featured a number of lesser well known Academy graduates - so he is not just rotating to keep the stars happy.
Many will be waiting to see if he sticks to his rotation principles when they hit a serious patch of poor form.
