- Chelsea appointed Italian coach Enzo Maresca as their new manager on Monday
- The Blues shelled out £10m in compensation to Leicester to acquire Maresca
- Plymouth job will be the one that makes or breaks Wayne Rooney’s managerial career – Listen to the It’s All Kicking Off podcast
The significant amount of money Chelsea have spent on bringing in managers since 2000 has been revealed.
The Blues appointed Enzo Maresca on Monday as they poached the Italian coach from Leicester after he led the Foxes to the Championship title.
Maresca becomes the 19th manager to lead Chelsea since the turn of the century, with several big names having stepped into the hot seat at Stamford Bridge.
In order to prise away the former Juventus, Sevilla and West Brom midfielder from the East Midlands, Chelsea splashed out £10million in compensation.
This took their total spend on managers to £55.5m from 2000 to the present day and Maresca became the fourth most-expensive managerial acquisition of all-time in the process.
Graham Potter‘s move to Stamford Bridge from Brighton is second on that list, behind Julian Nagelsmann‘s £21.9m move from RB Leipzig to Bayern Munich.
Chelsea splashed out £21.5m in compensation for Potter and some of his coaching staff in September 2022.
Meanwhile, Andre Villas-Boas’ ill-fated reign at Stamford Bridge didn’t come without a cost, after the Blues had spent £13.3m on getting him out of Porto.
Villas-Boas wasn’t the first Portuguese manager to swap the Primeira Liga club for Chelsea, with Jose Mourinho arriving in that manner for his first spell in 2004.
However, reports at the time claimed Mourinho was a relative bargain as Chelsea were said to have only spent £1.7m on prizing him out of Porto.
In more recent times, Maurizio Sarri cost £5m when he arrived at the club from Napoli, although the Blues managed to recoup £10m in compensation when the Italian joined Juventus the following year.
Elsewhere, Frank Lampard’s homecoming as manager from Derby set Chelsea back £4m, with the former midfielder and club icon lasting 18 months in the role.
However, Chelsea did manage to be more frugal in other areas.
The appointments of Claudio Ranieri, Avram Grant, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez, Roberto Di Matteo, Jose Mourinho for his second spell, Antonio Conte, Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino did not cost the club a penny in compensation.
The likes of Ray Wilkins, Steve Holland and Bruno Saltor also spent short spells in charge of Chelsea on a temporary basis.