Chelsea next manager analysed with Amorim twist and McKenna interview plan

Chelsea next manager news with the latest from the head coach search including a football.london take on Kieran McKenna and Enzo Maresca

Day three of Chelsea searching for a new manager. By this point after the departure of Thomas Tuchel in 2022, Graham Potter had already been announced as his replacement.

There is no such exhaustive process going on as was with Mauricio Pochettino’s appointment last summer, but the Blues do have the slight benefit of no immediate rush to land a new manager.

They are closing in on a select group though after Sebastian Hoeness effectively left the chat. Alongside Roberto De Zerbi, some of the suggested frontrunners are out of the equation.

It has left a seemingly four-horse race. football.london understands that three of those names are Kieran McKenna, Thomas Frank, and Enzo Maresca. The rest is, it appears, anyone’s guess.

Here, football.london brings you the latest headlines and rumours from the journey to Chelsea appointing a new manager.

Ruben Amorim twist

Despite being a name on the outside of the managerial conversation for most of the first 48 hours post-Mauricio Pochettino, reports of Ruben Amorim to Chelsea picked up on Thursday night. The Sporting CP boss has been a long-term target for the Blues and is said to have always been on their radar.

The 39-year-old is due to take his side into the Portuguese cup final against Porto on Sunday, but hasn’t yet been ruled out of the race to become the new Chelsea head coach. It is said that the door remains open for the highly-rated manager and that he is keen on a move to the Premier League.

There have also been suggestions that Porto’s Sergio Conceicao was offered to the club by Jorge Mendes. He has been discarded in other reports as not being an option.

football.london says: This is the sort of manager that Chelsea fans expected to be linked with. There is a lot to be said of the optics around the Pochettino exit, and having two coaches yet to take charge of a top division game explained a lot of the disappointment from supporters.

Amorim is a different matter, however. He has serious European pedigree due to his impressive record so far at Sporting, and that for many is enough to put him above the other candidates.

It would remain a risk to go after him due to the shift towards English football, but his experience and body of evidence is bigger than both Maresca and McKenna. He feels more like a Chelsea manager than the others, but that means very little right now.

Interview stage

The Daily Mail write that Chelsea are now preparing for formal interviews with their four candidates. Including the ‘mystery manager’ – which theories have suggested could even be Amorim – the process towards hiring a new coach is being ramped up.

McKenna and Maresca are both described as having a good chance of getting the job, whilst Frank still appears to be somewhat of an outsider, especially given his recent quotes about leaving. The other tidbits from around the managerial search are that Manchester United will battle Chelsea for McKenna if they sack Erik ten Hag, thus giving Chelsea at least a few days head start, but also a possible deadline to get a deal over the line.

McKenna, it has also been said, would favour a move to United if all options were available, though in other quarters he is more open to a Stamford Bridge move than others. In reality, it all seems up in the air.

football.london says: This is when things get serious, then. Pochettino impressed Chelsea in his interview, and each manager will be also looking to get their own share of good feeling from the hierarchy that is now becoming so important to the whole thing.

How does it all look? Maresca is a strange one. He did get Leicester promoted but the red flags are the post-Christmas collapse, the lack of young players used, and the sheer advantage he had with his squad at the start of the season.

Defensively his team looked open in transition and didn’t play the most exciting football despite having more quality available. The same can’t be said of McKenna, who progressed through the levels of academy coach, to assistant under Jose Mourinho, to back-to-back promotions and into the Premier League.

The Graham Potter comparisons are understandable but also unfair. This is a guy who has spent more time working with top players at United than Potter did, and his methods as coach look extremely scaleable.

The doubt with McKenna is just the size of the task at hand and how he would adapt to the challenge. That is the risk involved with all of this.

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