17 minutes ago, Nibs said:

But I know it won't happen as this board love a yes-man and we are stuck with the SD's who have too much say and proper coaches won't like the idea of working with them.

This is the problem when you have a mediocre calibre of individual in key positions of responsibility.

The egos dictate that they won't want to be shown up by underlings and subordinates so they tend to hire people who are a similar (or worse) non-threatening level of mediocrity, who won't (or can't) challenge them and make them look bad.

Unfortunately this goes all the way to the top ... I mean, who in their right mind would entrust the keys to the kingdom to Stewart and Winstanley ?

Rubbish manager, his football is crap to watch and he isn't even likeable.

"My big problem with Chelsea is nothing to do with Maresca as such, but how 3 and a half years in with the money that has been spent, you turn up the Old Trafford with the goalkeeper and center backs you’ve got, it can’t win you the league."

Carragher's right.

If we'd turned up at United with the likes of Cech, Terry and Carvalho we wouldn't be having this conversation...

But it will be Maresca who'll be the first to lose his job... and rightly so... his style of play, team selection and mindless substitutions are costing us points.

So it's out.

But we need to get rid of the two clowns upstairs too so as next year when we turn up at Old trafford, we're playing with a full deck.

I am Enzo out but I do understand he's not been dealt the best of hands, however with what he does have he can still be doing a lot better than this performance/tactics wise. I think I said last season there were about 10 to 15 managers in the league alone better than Maresca and I still stand by that despite everyone going on about how we were only a few points of 2nd, ignoring other factors.

Having said that, people need to understand that this team simply is not as good as we think it is. We are not going to be fighting for the title regardless of who is in charge. If the aim is just better attacking football we can literally pick any of the 10-15 in the league and it would be an improvement.

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

This is the problem when you have a mediocre calibre of individual in key positions of responsibility.

The egos dictate that they won't want to be shown up by underlings and subordinates so they tend to hire people who are a similar (or worse) non-threatening level of mediocrity, who won't (or can't) challenge them and make them look bad.

Unfortunately this goes all the way to the top ... I mean, who in their right mind would entrust the keys to the kingdom to Stewart and Winstanley ?

🤑🤑🤑

My gut feeling is that Maresca is pissed off at the SDs and is may be angling for a sacking and a nice big pay off. The substitutions yesterday and against Utd seem like public signals, "look what I'm dealing with here", tantrums with a whiff of self-sabotage. I find it hard to believe he's that incompetent.

I'm on the fence, though, since I feel like it will just be more of the same with the next guy. Rinse and repeat.

if Maresca does go he can take the set piece coach with him as he’s sh*t as well

I cant vote as I am not sure yet

Today if I did it would be out but that’s because of yesterday still fresh

At times I think it’s going well but other times I think this is crap unfortunately recently more the latter

I do think it’s hard to judge him when the central defence is so mid table or even below that standard currently

We seem to be buying potential where when you look at others like Spurs and I hate to say but they have got in players ready to go if we had a central defender and keeper in that bracket with done experience and of a good standard I could judge him more clearly

Edited September 28, 2025Sep 28 by Neil A

I have a feeling we might end up with someone like Laurent Blanc and not sure if it would be much better.

Not sure if Enzo is panicking if we lose a player or is something else.

Iraola is the only known answer imo.

I still harbour a slim hope of a buy one Enzo, get one free. Kill two lame ducks with one stone.

Fill your boots: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/trainer/verfuegbaretrainer/statistik

I am not (and never really have been) a fan of Maresca. I didn't rate him at Leicester and thought he was the wrong appointment at the beginning of last season. I don't generally like inflexible system managers who play unadventurous, unspontaneous football. This way or nothing. Seeing how we utterly collapsed in the last two games after the red cards (against two teams with plainly worse squads) is evidence of a manager who is incapable of adaptation. Maresca can't (or won't) position himself against the poor decisions of the leadership and sporting directors. He considers Jackson to be his ideal striker yet acquiesces when he's allowed/told to leave and is replaced by one worse player and another who specialises in a different position. We have also seen evidence of poor player profiling: João Pedro is not a target man and we don't get the best out of Reece at centre mid, for example. He also doesn't appear to notice fundamental problems: with Jackson and Madueke (and Palmer) missing we don't have forwards who take enough shots. We have Garnacho on the bench who specialises in that (and only that) - why isn't he being used? These aren't small problems.

That said, last year was a par, with us qualifying for the Champions' League for the first time under the new ownership, and winning the Conference League. It was also a clear improvement on the two previous seasons. Winning the Club World Cup was pretty well meaningless (not that I would admit that in front of opposition fans), but I hoped we could carry that momentum into the new season, particularly with a less disastrous transfer window than the preceding summer. Of course, this hasn't happened.

I agree with @Remodez 's point that we as a fanbase may be guilty of overrating the squad. We probably do have the fourth-best squad in the league, so fourth place as an accomplishment (and a continued objective) isn't unreasonable. The squad are almost all at the same or similar stages of their careers, there's an evident (if understandable) lack of leadership, and there are gaps in the squad which have been an issue for several years. If we are going to replace Maresca with the intention of challenging the current top three, we need to be sure that it's going to be with somebody who is actually going to be better. Unless we are willing to pay a severance fee (which I doubt), we're limited to the managers on the above list who are already available. My point is: yes, we almost certainly could have somebody better than Maresca, but, especially given the lack of competence in the people employed to make these decisions, things could be a whole lot worse.

Spalletti, anyone?

17 minutes ago, loz said:

I still harbour a slim hope of a buy one Enzo, get one free. Kill two lame ducks with one stone.

You always were a dreamer.

We'll be lucky to get rid of one.

In short….out.

However if we don’t adopt a new way of obtaining a manager we will have the same conversation 6 months after hiring a replacement and still be nowhere closer to getting back to not only winning but doing it in an entertaining and ruthless manner.

His backing of Wacko last season was madness, letting Petrovic go and keeping Bawb (maybe not his shout ?) contrary to some, I actually believe we’ve a great squad to work with, but we need a little experience in key areas just to keep the heads level when games go like yesterday (how I miss Thiago Silva and Giroud)

I’m not one for keeping up with the latest greatest manager available, so would be hesitant to f**k him out until a clearly better option is ready to come to us, but regardless I’d say his exit letter is coming sooner rather than later.

Don’t need to write a lot want him OUT!!!!

Definitely should be out. But apart from a more attacking outlook, I can’t see any manager on Earth achieving much more at this level of football with this youth team. There’s a handful of players in the squad who look to have what it takes to play well at the top of the game, but there’s also a few who would be warming the bench for Championship teams.

So I really don’t rate Maresca, but this squad is a bit of a problem thanks to our weird owners.

3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Iraola is the only known answer imo.

Howe you can say that?

21 minutes ago, Snedger said:

Definitely should be out. But apart from a more attacking outlook, I can’t see any manager on Earth achieving much more at this level of football with this youth team. There’s a handful of players in the squad who look to have what it takes to play well at the top of the game, but there’s also a few who would be warming the bench for Championship teams.

So I really don’t rate Maresca, but this squad is a bit of a problem thanks to our weird owners.

Crystal Palace squad isn’t better than us and look what their manager is doing. A better manager gets FAR MORE out of this squad period.

Maresca has an ideology about football and way of playing he will never change THIS is our downfall.

Glasner and Iraola gets more out of this team.

Why do we keep thinking we have a relegation squad.

Would be happy with Glasner, but is he a yes man?

23 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Need a 4th option. Don't care. Because we know the next one is another blueco puppet not fit for the task.

I'm with Ax and picked on the fence due to this! ^^

Enzo makes some weird decisions, but it seems he can only work with what he's got or what he's told to do!

We played good direct football during the CWC and even the week before the season, playing those friendlies! Then just one week later, we return to our new default premiership settings of slow possession, boring, non-direct, sideways and back passing sh*t! Surely no professional manager thinks this is the best way to play after wiping big teams off the park before the season! I think Enzo is instructed by the board on much more than what we realise. The last few months with Poch told us that, and with Enzo speaking out more, it looks like it'll go the same way! These "coaches" can't pick players from the market for the benefit of the team, and only get players that are given to them by the SD's. There is no way Enzo has the only input to what happens on the pitch; he's still even playing Poch's inverted system, but one step further!

Should he go? Probably, but we'll just get a few months run with a new manager bounce, to return to the same questions again until the manager speaks out, loses a dressing room (no doubt from board pressure) and is told to go! Rinse and repeat again and again!

The next 2 games will be huge for Enzo. Can he fill the injured player slots easily, or will he have to play one of two LWs out of position that he didn't even want or need?

14 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Marco Bielsa. A madman who will get them running,.

He would be short term, but would get them really having a go and learning the game.

If Marco Bielsa comes here, we would have to forfeit games due to too many injuries after 2 weeks.

De Zerbi, Glasner or Iraola. They are all miles better than Maresca.

Glasner would be my first choice.

Iraola is my first choice.

I do believe that he's not happy wth the signings, and he's been well and truly bent over like every manager who's had the displeasure of working under these muppets.

But this bloke is garbage, he appeals to Football Twitter hipsters and that's it. He'll have a nothing career once he goes and we won't hear much of him. I'll be surprised if he can even land a Premier League job.