“Fired before Christmas” – Premier League winner has little hope for new Chelsea era

The Enzo Maresca era has begun at Chelsea, with some poor performances in pre-season.

William Gallas has spoken out about the new regime and it's fair to say he's not too hopeful. In quotes picked up by the Sun, the former Blue didn't hold back on his opinion of the difficulties the new manager may have to overcome:

“Even though we are in pre-season, I am worried about Chelsea and when I look at the squad, I am worried,” said Gallas.

“I hope he stays at least until the end of the season and gets the chance to show what he can do, but it will always be the same problem.

“If he doesn't have the right players and the right team to compete in the Premier League, it will be incredibly difficult for him. Not just Chelsea, but all Premier League owners have run out of patience.”

“Despite all the money they have spent, the squad is still not good enough to qualify for the Champions League. They have so many players and they still need more quality. Could Enzo Maresca be sacked before Christmas? Anything can happen in football,” he concluded.

We can only hope that Gallas is being too pessimistic – but in many ways it's hard to argue with him. This team finished 6th last year. Is it significantly better than the current team? No. Is it even better? Maybe not. Will the new coach bring in 20 extra points? Probably not.

We'd love to see Maresca succeed, but even in the best-case scenario, it's easy to imagine him needing a few months of poor results to get his message across. A slow start seems very likely (especially given preseason results and performances so far). Fired by Christmas? We hope not, but Gallas isn't far off the mark in saying that's possible.