Enzo - would you have him back?

[Kinowe Soorie]

Never say never, but I don’t like how early he jumped ship. And with him doing so, shafted us big time for this season, with the club then scrabbling around for another manager.

[SemperEadem]

Yes in a flash.

[Ricey]

If it was a straight choice between Ruud and Enzo, then yes. If not, it would be a firm no.

 

I just couldn’t get behind his philosophy. Seeing him telling the fans to calm down after we equalised against West Brom was the final straw for me. I want to see a team (and club) that represents us, and it’s not that.

 

Teams sussed it out and it took a players-only meeting to turn our form around. I think football is moving on from the obsession of replicating Pep.

You’ve also got the Burnley/Southampton dilemma of if we do manager to get promoted, we’ll crash and burn in the Premier League.

[suffolk fox]

Dropped us like a hat when the big clubs came calling...............dire, turgid football. exactly what Chelsea fans are getting and moaning at now.........no plan b when better teams in the championship sussed us out stumbled over the line with the team we had in the championship want him back not a chance in hell........NO.

[J. James]

Clearly a post that reflects the hopelessness of our position/season! May as well ask "would you have MON as he was in 1995"!

Or sign Messi*.. etc. etc..

Equal chance of these happening, frankly zero!

* we may sign Messi as head coach the day after he retires from playing and says he may like to coach one day.

 

[cityfanlee23]

Meh. Hes better than cooper and ruud, hate the football, massively stubborn manager who imo has been underwhelming at Chelsea despite spending 250m at a club overflowing with talent and still wanting more in January. Would rather go in another direction but no doubt he’s an upgrade on Ruud. 

[teblin]

I’d like to have seen how it went with him this year.

 

we certainly wouldn’t have had Ayew etc….

 

But not sure I’d go back.

[jimmer]

On the fence.

 

Like many have already stated. He was incredibly one dimensional. No plan B and boring as hell.

That said, he is definitely a better man manager than Ruud, he could motivate a team. Clear instructions and well organised... oh how we've been missing that this season.

 

I'd love us to go for a young exciting manager that has experience in getting the best out of a team of players.... A "team builder" like Pearson & O'Neil were. Big name not important. But absolutely MUST have a good eye for a player.

 

Above all, our scouting network needs a full and total overhaul. 

 

 

[Winstonthedog]

If you look at it logically ....  in the one season he was manager .... he had a very good first half of the season ...... and after other teams had worked us out because we only had one plan / style of play  the second half was poor and towards the end things were looking very dodgy 

[Tuna]

Yes but it's not a likely scenario is it

[87fox]

Absolutely yes. But he would never come back.

[LFEFox23]

Its a no from me.

Edited 21 March by LFEFox23

[filbertway]

Loved the man and his standards, hated his football.

 

Was only a Leeds implosion away from throwing away the most insane lead. I just don't rate coaches that think there's only one way to play the game. If bog standard Championship managers are working you out and beating you with vastly inferior squads. (we lost 7 out of 10 in the back end of that season)

 

I'd like someone with his standards, but a manager that's not going to make watching football a chore.

[grobyfox1990]

12 minutes ago, filbertway said:

Loved the man and his standards, hated his football.

 

Was only a Leeds implosion away from throwing away the most insane lead. I just don't rate coaches that think there's only one way to play the game. If bog standard Championship managers are working you out and beating you with vastly inferior squads. (we lost 7 out of 10 in the back end of that season)

 

I'd like someone with his standards, but a manager that's not going to make watching football a chore.

 

We won the league at a canter last season, barely broke sweat, even took 2 months off. There will always be a team imploding at that level because the standard of football is so so poor. Take out the Parma blip and the history books will have his first managerial appointment as Enzo pointing and laughing at a league that's marketed as being 'very tough to get out of'.

Fair point on not liking the style though.

[filbertway]

12 minutes ago, grobyfox1990 said:

 

We won the league at a canter last season, barely broke sweat, even took 2 months off. There will always be a team imploding at that level because the standard of football is so so poor. Take out the Parma blip and the history books will have his first managerial appointment as Enzo pointing and laughing at a league that's marketed as being 'very tough to get out of'.

Fair point on not liking the style though.

I think we have different definitions of canter It looked like plain sailing at christmas after we won about 6 of the first 10 games with last minute winners.

 

We were about 20 lengths clear going over the last hurdle. sprained our ankle and limped over the line thanks to the other horses doing the same thing.

 

But yeah, I really hated the style and repetitive obvious patterns of play, so that's where a lot of this comes from. If he was Bielsa I'd probably be painting those as positives

 

[OnlyOneCity]

Thankfully, this style of football seems to be starting to have run its course. Even Pep has noticed that teams like Brighton, Forest, Bournemouth and Fulham, are not playing it by messing around at the back. Yes Maresca got us promoted playing a style which was new to other Championship teams. We played the best football at the start of the season when we were learning the style. As soon as other teams caught on, they just waited for us while we passed the ball on the half way line to each other. He said the other week when asked about the jeering from the fans when a player played it back, that the player knew that if he didn’t pass it back, he wouldn’t be in the team the next week. The same with the keeper if he played it long.

[st albans fox]

Tell me it’s international break without telling me it’s international break !

[grobyfox1990]

34 minutes ago, filbertway said:

I think we have different definitions of canter It looked like plain sailing at christmas after we won about 6 of the first 10 games with last minute winners.

 

We were about 20 lengths clear going over the last hurdle. sprained our ankle and limped over the line thanks to the other horses doing the same thing.

 

But yeah, I really hated the style and repetitive obvious patterns of play, so that's where a lot of this comes from. If he was Bielsa I'd probably be painting those as positives

 

Yeh true, we were 7 points clear in the automatic zone which is a canter, but just checked we actually only won the league by 1 point LOL.

That being said I still think its insane we could do that whilst taking a two-month mid season break and getting drunk for the last game of the season.

[Filbert Fireworks]

No I wouldn't want Enzo back.

Enzo is an excellent manager and grateful for the promotion.

That style of football is reliant on having technically elite players. 

We had the best squad in the championship and the possession based style worked under Enzo much credit to him for that but we were always wide open at the back and genuinely think we would have been getting hammered in the prem playing that way ala Kompany. 

Works at Chelsea but its so transactional and boring to watch. Anti-football at it's best.

As already said its a transactional style so against teams with technically better players it comes unstuck. There was never a plan B either.

Chelsea fans aren't enjoying it with their elite squad. 

He would probably get us promoted again in the championship though. 

Thanks Enzo but no thanks. 

 

 

 

[dobbylcfc]

No way he jumped ship first chance he got what’s stopping him doing it again???

[oxford blue]

I am surprised there is a majority (currently) who would want him back.  It is true many Chelsea fans would like to see him dismissed because of the boring football they play. Wasn't there similar boring football at Leicester last season - how many times were you frustrated with 20 plus passes to end back where possession started?

 

Interesting article in Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/16/chelsea-sancho-maresca-premier-league-analysis

 

Given the ability of the Chelsea squad, they have under-performed this season. Of course , most notable (apart from first few games) is Palmer; he must be so frustrated with playing style. Given the talent (or lack of it) in the squad, we would be in a similar position in PL had we stayed. And if reports are true, it was Maresca's call to give Vestergaard a 3 year contract - which made no sense at the time and even less now.

[whoareyaaa]

I didn't think his football was boring and we at least looked like a team that knew what they was doing, most of the Championship teams just camped in there half so hardly going to be entertaining is it ?

 

Games against Southampton, Stoke and others we played some really good football and won most games.

 

Probably would take him back tbh.

 

 

[CrazyKopCorner]

Enzo clearly knows what he's doing which after Clueless Cooper and RVFN would be a huge sigh of relief. I appreciate the dull football but at least it would be largely or significantly more competent. 

 

There's absolutely no way he'd take the job though as he'd see it too much of a backward step in Project Enzo 

[iancognito]

People moaning about Enzoball after this season are very strange.

 

Boring? Sometimes. Predicatable? In the end? But look at some of the goals we weaved together last season.

 

I'd have the beautiful bald bsatrad back in a heartbeat.

[BenTheFox]

I feel like people are conveniently forgetting his final 12 or so games here. It was dreadful.