Just under a month ago, Enzo Maresca won the Championship title in his first season as Leicester City boss.
The Italian will compete in the Premier League next term but instead of doing so with the Foxes, he’s set to take his expertise to Chelsea.
talkSPORT understands that the Blues want to hire Maresca as their successor to Mauricio Pochettino after his mutually-agreed exit.
Leicester’s current head coach is on course to be the third permanent appointment at Stamford Bridge since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital completed their takeover in 2022.
Their first was former Brighton boss Graham Potter, someone that their potential new head coach is very familiar with as they spent around a year-and-a-half together at West Brom.
Maresca was 18 years old when he joined the Baggies and learned a new culture in England, but it seems as though Potter gave a helping hand.
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“When you move from, in my case Italy to England directly to Birmingham, you can adapt immediately to the language and to the country,” he said in Manchester City’s feature about him.
“My English was not so good and also I learned a lot when I was there, though I struggled a bit at the beginning but after it worked quite well.
“When I first joined the club, Denis Smith was in charge as manager then Brian Little came in for the second year. With both of them I was very happy. They helped me a lot in terms of adaptation to the life and the football. I was happy there.
“I also remember sharing lifts to training with Graham. We played together, we lived very close so sometimes we travelled together in the car to the training ground.”
In September 2022, over two decades since he and Maresca left West Brom as players, Potter was named as Chelsea’s new head coach.
He came in to replace Champions League winner Thomas Tuchel and was quick to make an impression as he won six of his first nine games.
However, Potter was dismissed just seven months later and weeks before the Blues finished a dismal Premier League season in 12th.
With Maresca now set to be Chelsea’s next permanent boss following Pochettino’s departure, he’ll hope he fares better in the dugout.
The west London side have spent around £1billion on transfers since their takeover two years ago but are yet to win any silverware.
Chelsea finished sixth this season and qualified for the Europa Conference League ahead of the new campaign, one that fans will be desperate to see more progress in.
Maresca will arrives with previous Premier League experience as one of Pep Guardiola’s coaches in City’s treble-winning season.
Championship title success came his way at Leicester when he left the European champions, with the job at Chelsea a reward for his success.
However, taking the reigns at a Blues side who are so desperate to win trophies against will come as a whole new challenge and step up for Maresca next season.