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Chelsea fans will now want 2025 to desperately end when casting an eye over their team’s gloomy end-of-year form.

Indeed, the up-and-down Blues have only been victorious a meagre two times across eight contests in all competitions in December, with one of those wins coming against League One opposition in Cardiff City in the EFL Cup.

Last time out, Chelsea did play out a thrilling Premier League clash with AFC Bournemouth, and while the neutral would have been overjoyed with the entertainment on show in the 2-2 draw, Blues supporters packed into Stamford Bridge would have been sick to their stomachs as another three points passed their side by.

Enzo Maresca certainly looks to be on borrowed time in the Chelsea dug-out, with the Italian a strong contender to be the first Premier League managerial casualty of 2026…

Why Chelsea must consider sacking Maresca

Maresca wouldn’t face the media after his side’s action-packed draw with the Cherries, with the former Leicester City boss judged to be too unwell to answer questions, as assistant coach Willy Caballero filled in instead.

Of course, this could well have been the case, but it does read as if the 45-year-old knows he is under significant pressure to change the Chelsea predicament, and fast, hence his hesitancy to be under the media spotlight.

With only one victory picked up from their last five league outings, Maresca and Co. currently occupy a disappointing fifth spot at the halfway stage of the season, with no signs of great improvement on the pitch, having secured a fourth-place position during his debut campaign.

Moreover, the under-fire manager’s constant “chopping and changing” of his starting XI is doing him no favours, as per pundit Chris Sutton, with a start handed to Liam Delap seriously backfiring against Andoni Iraola’s visitors, as yet another goalless performance was offered up.

Delap isn’t the only mega-money signing from Chelsea’s plentiful summer activity that has failed to settle, with Maresca cursing the likes of Jamies Gittens still being without a Premier League strike, alongside Alejandro Garnacho frustrating the West London masses mid-week when failing to track Bournemouth runners.

Ultimately, it is up to the boss in the dug-out to get the best out of what’s at his disposal, with the Italian’s reign at Chelsea now feeling somewhat stale.

This stale feeling could be rectified by Chelsea appointing this standout replacement, who already has significant BlueCo ties.

Chelsea must dismiss Maresca for "one of the best coaches ever"

Plenty has been made of Todd Boehly and BlueCo since the American billionaire took over at Stamford Bridge in 2022, with not a lot of success taking place on the pitch across their stay to date.

That might soon change, though, if Boehly can tempt RC Strasbourg manager Liam Rosenior to move away from France to West London.

Indeed, Football Insider recently revealed that the fellow Blue Co-owned club could soon lose the ex-Hull City manager, as he is seen as a strong contender for the Chelsea vacancy if Maresca is removed.

Unlike the 45-year-old who has seen his stock take a notable dip at Stamford Bridge this season, Rosenior is very much a manager who has received plenty of praise this campaign for the glowing job he is continuing to do in Ligue 1, with European football broadcaster Andy Brassell recently hailing him as an “exceptional coach and developer of players.”

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The proof is in the pudding, too, with Rosenior turning Jordan Panichelli into a potential Ligue 1 golden boot winner with nine strikes already next to his name this season, with Delap perhaps benefiting from an arm around the shoulder from the London-born head coach.

Rosenior’s overall managerial record

Stat

Rosenior

Games played

152

Wins

66

Draws

43

Losses

43

Goals scored

224

Goals conceded

184

Points accumulated

241

Win percentage

43%

Sourced by Transfermarkt

Having also been a steadying influence at Derby County right at the start of his well-travelled managerial career, with pundit Clinton Morrison hailing him as “one of the best coaches ever” for what he managed to achieve with the crisis-stricken Rams, he could well be capable of getting a lot more out of an underperforming Chelsea side, as seen in him lifting Strasbourg to an unexpected European finish last season.

Nearly getting to the Premier League with Hull, too, it does feel as if Rosenior is deserving of a chance at Premier League glory now as a manager, having been dubbed a “highly-regarded” figure right after his Tigers dismissal by journalist Henry Winter.

His reputation has only been enhanced since taking an unexpected next step to manage in France, as Chelsea keep their fingers crossed that they can pull off a transformative replacement for Maresca, if Rosenior takes over in the New Year.

Related Fewer touches than Sanchez: £100k-p/w flop is on borrowed time at Chelsea

Chelsea dropped points on home soil yet again on Tuesday evening.

Posts ByRobbie Walls

ScorecardFile photo – Kevin O’Brien collected 3 for 14 to suffocate UAE’s innings•AFP

Ireland’s bowlers rallied around a three-wicket haul from Kevin O’Brien, as the team successfully defended a meager total of 134 against UAE, in Abu Dhabi.UAE, who needed to score at just under seven an over, failed to gather any momentum in their innings, as their attempts at stitching together big partnerships were dashed by wickets at regular intervals. A few batsmen made starts, but nobody was able to contribute more than 24, as the entire team just managed eight boundaries. O’Brien was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with stingy figures of 4-0-14-3, while Tim Murtagh, Craig Young and Boyd Rankin chipped in with two scalps apiece, dismissing UAE for 100.Earlier, Ireland, after being inserted, were struggling at 19 for 4 inside five overs before the O’Brien brothers Kevin and Niall led a recovery by putting together a 55-run partnership. Niall top-scored with a 29-ball 38, but it was a Max Sorensen’s 15-ball 26 which provided Ireland a late surge and lifted them over the 130-run mark. Amjad Javed picked up three wickets for UAE, but conceded 41 runs from his four overs.

Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara have both topped 900 points in the latest ICC player rankings which have been published today.Muralitharan became only the fourth Test bowler in history to reach 920 rating points and is the highest-rated bowler for 24 years. He is now just two rating points behind Pakistan legend Imran Khan and is fast catching up on England’s Sydney Barnes and George Lohmann, who are first and second, respectively, in the all-time Test bowlers’ list.Meanwhile, Kumar Sangakkara is stamping his own mark on history as he enjoys a fine run of recent form that continued in two double hundreds during the series whitewash over Bangladesh. Sangakkara became the first Sri Lankan batsman to pass 900 rating points mark and has moved up to 22nd in the all-time list for Test batsmen. He remains third in the current ICC rankings for Test batsmen but is continuing to close the gap on the two players currently ahead of him, Mohammad Yousuf and Ricky Ponting.Overall, there is little movement in the latest rankings with Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena going up one place to 12th on the back of his 165 in Kandy, his 18th Test hundred, overtaking Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq in the process.Bangladesh’s Shahriar Nafees improved by 12 places to 51st position and is now the second-placed Bangladesh batsman in the rankings, two places behind former captain Habibul Bashar, who dropped six places.In the bowling list, Muralitharan stretched his lead over South Africa’s Makhaya Ntini with Anil Kumble of India and another Protea, Shaun Pollock, back in joint-third place.Pollock also features in the rankings for Test allrounders, in third spot behind team-mate Jacques Kallis at the top and England’s Andrew Flintoff in second.

LG ICC Player Rankings
Rank	Name	Country	Rating
1	R.T. Ponting	AUS	936
2	Mohammad Yousuf	PAK	915
3	K.C. Sangakkara	SL	900
4	K.P. Pietersen	ENG	862
5	M.E.K. Hussey	AUS	842
6	M.L. Hayden	AUS	828
7	J.H. Kallis	SA	820
8	R. Dravid	IND	801
9	Younis Khan	PAK	789
10	S. Chanderpaul	WI	762
	Top 100

Rank	Name	Country	Rating
1	M. Muralitharan	SL	920
2	M. Ntini	SA	856
3	S.M. Pollock	SA	730
3	A. Kumble	IND	730
5	S.E. Bond	NZ	722
6	M.S. Panesar	ENG	721
6	M.J. Hoggard	ENG	721
8	S.R. Clark	AUS	720
9	Mohammad Asif	PAK	710
10	Shoaib Akhtar	PAK	698
	Top 100

Fans pack in to watch the Stanford 20/20 © Joseph Jones

The Stanford 20/20 tournament, which has fuelled a wave of excitement in Antigua over the past two weeks, should be spread across the Caribbean next year. That suggestion is coming from Andy Roberts, one of 14 West Indian legends acting as ambassadors for the lucrative tournament.Roberts, chairman of the competition’s technical committee, endorsed a bigger tournament to make it possible for teams to play more matches. “This is the first time. Nobody knew how successful it was going to be. We may look at a different format next year,” he told The Nation. “One format I would like to see is that you don’t play all the games in Antigua. You take the 20/20 to the Caribbean and then you can come back to Antigua for the semi-finals and final. If you’re taking it to the wider Caribbean, then you might be able to play on a round-robin basis instead of a knockout. We would like to get more of the West Indies involved.”The tournament, created and financed by Texan billionaire Allen Stanford who is pumping US$28 million into the competition, started on July 11 with 19 teams vying for a top prize of US$1 million in a single elimination knockout format. Ever since Stanford launched the tournament last October, there were several observers questioning how the competition would benefit the development of the game in the region.Another of the tournament’s legends, Gordon Greenidge, was not surprised by the initial lack of endorsement. “We in the Caribbean don’t warm to something new very easily. We tend to wait and see what has happened,” Greenidge said. “Before we see what is happening, we tend to criticise it without giving it a chance to work. I am not really surprised. [But] a lot of people have taken this on board and see it as something that can benefit West Indies cricket even though it is the one-day version of the game.”Former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd was also of the view that this form of the game was growing on fans around the region. “A lot of people never like change. The world has changed. Cricket is evolving,” said Lloyd, another of the tournament legends. “We have to move along. It’s a different type of cricket. It’s just like when 40-overs came in. People didn’t like it either. Like everything new, there are going to be one or two doubters, but I’m sure we’re winning.”While the popularity of the 20/20 version of the game is growing globally, the common feeling is that it will not reach the stage where it will rival the traditional 50-over game.”I don’t see it replacing, but complementing the 50-over game,” Greenidge said. “It is offering an opportunity. Most of the time it is played in the evening and under lights where you are trying to bring back the viewers to cricket and in so doing, you are offering a chance that the fans can bring the small kids and so on.”

Bangladesh fought bravely, but were no match for a South African team that is gradually getting its act together. South Africa batted with commitment to put up 261 on a pitch that aided the spinners, and then restricted Bangladesh to just 168 to win by 93 runs.Jacques Rudolph anchored the innings superbly with a well-paced 81, and late-innings impetus from Shaun Pollock and Neil McKenzie took South Africa past 250. Pollock and Makhaya Ntini, sharing the new ball for the first time in this tournament, then picked up some early wickets, and at 29 for 4 the game was effectively over. Alok Kapali made an elegant, combative 71, but the chase was never on.South Africa looked a cohesive unit in the field today, playing with the grim professionalism that so epitomised them once upon a Cronje era. New captain Graeme Smith seemed to be learning his lessons as well – he finally allowed Pollock to share the new ball with Ntini, and the game was decided before their first spells were over.Pollock was his usual accurate and parsimonious self, while Ntini obtained significant inswing and troubled the batsmen with his bounce and pace. The first two overs were maidens – and as the runs began to come, so did the wickets.Mehrab Hossain (6) was caught behind off Ntini while flashing outside the off stump (16 for 1). Pollock then passed Allan Donald as South Africa’s highest ODI wicket-taker, with two consecutive lbw decisions. Habibul Bashar (1) was hit high on the pad, and there appeared to be an inside edge as well (19 for 2). But Mohammad Ashraful (13) was trapped plumb inside his crease by an incoming ball (25 for 3).Alan Dawson then struck with his first ball, as Akram Khan (3) reached out for a widish one and only managed to edge it through to Mark Boucher (29 for 4). But though the match was effectively over, Bangladesh didn’t roll over and die.Kapali and Khaled Mahmud added 55 in 80 balls, batting with resolve to prevent the kind of collapse that had become so routine in the World Cup. Mahmud (24) was caught behind off a wild slash off Andrew Hall in the 27th over, and Kapali then played a lone act. He played with immaculate technique with some lovely strokes before he slapped Hall’s slower ball to Paul Adams at mid-off for 71 (157 for 9).Earlier, Bangladesh had bowled with zest to make South Africa sweat while they batted. Herschelle Gibbs went early on for a duck, inside-edging Tapash Baisya onto his stumps (5 for 1). Baisya and Manjural Islam bowled with verve and made the batsmen play and miss, but they let the pressure slip with a fair amount of loose balls. While Rudolph looked tentative, Smith was severe on anything short or wide.They added a solid 101 before Bangladesh broke through; as expected, it was spin which did the job. Sanwar Hossain had Smith stretching out to play him with minimal footwork, and getting another inside edge into the stumps (106 for 2). Smith’s 67 was solid and well-constructed, and his dismissal was against the run of play.At the other end Kapali bowled his legspinwith guile and variation, giving the ball a fair bit of air. But though Kapali picked up the wickets of Boeta Dippenaar and Boucher, Rudolph made sure there was no mid-innings collapse, milking the singles and pacing his innings well. He was finally caught behind off Sanwar for 81 in the 42nd over, trying to turn one down to third man (192 for 5), and it appeared that South Africa might be restricted to less than 250. But Pollock and McKenzie added 69 in the remaining time, with Pollock making 38 not out off 20 balls, with two huge sixes off the hapless Mahmud.Bangladesh walked out of the tournament with more pride than they had brought into it, having displayed that they still had stomach for a fight. South Africa had a useful practice game, and their real tests still lie ahead.

Shoaib Akhtar, Moin Khan and Abdul Razzaq will appear before a medical commission at the National Cricket Academy on Wednesday morning (April 28). The five-member medical panel began its inquiry on Sunday to review the fitness of the key players, like Umar Gul, who were involved in the series against India. The commission, headed by Dr Abdul Wajid, who is an orthopaedic surgeon of the Aga Khan University, was appointed by the PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan.According to a PCB official, Moin and Razzaq will be interviewed by the commission and during the process the doctor’s panal will also examine the MIR reports of the injured players.Shoaib, who was in Mumbai for the last week to shoot a commercial, is scheduled to return today and has informed the PCB that he would be available from Tuesday.The dates when the commission will meet Mohammad Sami and Shabbir Ahmed are yet to be announced. Both players are currently playing in the English domestic championship. An official said that the commission will now consider the medical reports of the two players in their absence.

Somerset County Cricket Club will not tolerate mediocre performances, the club’s recently elected chairman Giles Clarke told the annual general meeting of The Friends of Bath County Cricket Festival held at Bath Cricket Club earlier this week.He said: “Clearly we need to perform on the field this summer. We are not a second division team. It’s time we won the county championship.”Outlining a strategy which would achieve this, Giles Clarke singled out two priorities: improving Somerset¹s performance on the field, and securing the club’s financial position.He said: “We must have outstanding county players, not just journeymen. Foreign players are an important part of this, and we have to see what overseas players we can attract, but we also need outstanding English players. For that we have to have outstanding coaching and outstanding facilities. These all require financial support.”He told members there is increased interest in sponsorships despite the difficult economic climate. Somerset was not a rich county — 80 per cent of companies have fewer than 10 employees — but the county manages to maintain and support a top class cricket team. In this context, the annual week-long Bath Cricket Festival provided vital and unswerving support for the county cricket club.”I would like to say there is no doubt that Bath Cricket Festival is a vital part of the Somerset CC year. When I was a boy, the county team played in Frome, Street and other places, but that is just not possible today, and we now have only the two county venues, Bath and Taunton.”He said he was optimistic that a lot more firms would be coming from Bristol to support the Bath Festival and he had made it his personal mission to “wake up” large Bristol companies and regional companies and get them to support the event.”As you may have heard, Ian Botham has been enlisted to help with our membership drive. Our membership levels remain at what they were last year at this time.”Among the players Somerset would be using this next year wasNixon McLean, the West Indian bowler who has played at Test level for the West Indies, Tasmanian Jamie Cox who captained the team last season,James Bryant, a no. 3 batsman who plays for Eastern Province who was said to be the finest fielder in South Africa, possibly even better than Jonty Rhodes and Neil Edwards, the best batsman on the U19 tour of Australia.In addition, Somerset had the services of county coach Kevin Shine — “one of our greatest assets, without doubt the best bowling coach in the country.”Giles said: “The club is not just about success on the field, it’s about financial success. With this in mind, we have begun a process to get closer to the business community and we are confident our sponsorships will exceed a six figure sum, which will go some way towards ensuring the future of our club.”Of particular concern was the fact that for 319 days a year the County Ground at Taunton was not fully used. Giles described this as “a wasted opportunity” and said several ideas were being explored for using the ground when it was not needed for cricket.Bob Holder, chairman of the Friends, told the meeting: “It is a tribute to the Bath and Wiltshire area committee that the Bath Festival is currently firmly embedded in the playing plans of Somerset. It is only three years ago that doubt was seriously felt about the financial viability of the club coming to Bath, even though there is over 100 years of history.”The result of an excellent fund raising year is, as you have heard, that the Friends donation to area funds is £2,500. I referred last year to the financial turnaround in the profits earned here in 2001 — £17,000. In 2002 the figure is over £20,000.”This year’s Bath Cricket Festival begins on Wednesday, June 4 with a four-day championship match between Somerset and Worcestershire, followed by a one-day match on Sunday, June 8 between Somerset and Northamptonshire.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Sunday denied it had madeany offer to former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin to lift thelife ban imposed on him.”Why should the BCCI have any truck with the banned players. I denythat the board has any private understanding with Azharuddin. Thematter is in the court and let the courts decide,” BCCI president ACMuthiah told PTI in Chennai reacting to a media report.The ‘Daily Telegraph’ of London in a report on Saturday said “TheIndian board have made a face saving offer to Mohammed Azharuddin byoffering to lift the life ban imposed on him if he is willing to givea voluntary pledge that he will never again be involved in cricket.”Azharuddin has challenged the life ban imposed on him in a Hyderabadcourt, the next hearing of which is due on August 29.As a fallout of the match fixing scandal, the BCCI had bannedAzharuddin and Ajay Sharma for life and imposed a five-year ban onAjay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar and former physio Ali Irani.

Trinidad and Tobago lacked fight in the Carib Beer Challenge final and the nine-wicket loss to Jamaica was a “real blot” on their season, according to their board president Deryck Murray. The team was skittled for 121 in the first innings and their second effort of 241 left Jamaica a target of just 70 to secure the title.”It’s easy to say this from 100 miles away but it didn’t look as though there was any real fight,” Murray told the . “That was the disappointing aspect.”You look back at the whole season and, yes, from the KFC Cup, the Carib Beer Series, the Stanford 20/20, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica dominated those series but they [Trinidad and Tobago] just didn’t look like that in the final. The final itself was the real blot.”However, Murray said the team’s season should be viewed in context and reaching the decider was a promising sign. But there was still significant work to do for Trinidad and Tobago to be consistently competitive, he said.”We played some very good games throughout. We in Trinidad and Tobago are enjoying success but that must not be allowed to mar the fact that there is still a big gap between the highest standard of Trinidad and Tobago’s cricket and what is expected at international level. We are aware of it. We need to keep working with the players.”

Scorecard
Taposh Ghosh and Mahmudul Hasan put in all-round performances and ensured a 43-run win for the Bangladesh Under-19 side against their Sri Lanka counterparts in the Tri-nation U-19 tournament in Colombo. The two made useful contributions to Bangladesh’s total of 204 and then picked up five wickets between themselves as Sri Lanka were bowled out with 28 balls to spare.Hasan, the Bangladesh captain and middle-order batsman, kept the scoreboard ticking with a 47-ball 32 after Ashraful Aziz and Nasir Hossain had added 53 for the fourth wicket. Ghosh, coming in at No. 9, threw his bat around for a 20-ball 27 which included two fours and a six. Tissara Perera, Sri Lanka’s right-arm medium-fast bowler, took 3 for 38.Fifteen-year old Ghosh, bowling legbreaks, then proceeded to put a dent in Sri Lanka’s run-chase by removing opener and top-scorer Dinesh Chandimal for 36. Ghosh ended with figures 2 for 21 from his 10 overs. Hasan, 16, picked up 3 for 20 with his offbreaks. Along with Hossain and Ghosh, Hasan ensured that there was no possibility of the middle order staging any sort of recovery. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 161.The previous encounter between the two was washed out and while Bangladesh now have a win from two games, Sri Lanka have none. India won both their matches and are leading the table with six points. Sri Lanka next play India on Wednesday, July 25, at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground.