What the old Special One would think of a Stamford Bridge boss concentrating on the third-class Conference League — in which Chelsea have so far, from memory, beaten Noah and the Whale, Mumford and Sons and Camper Van Beethoven — is anyone’s guess.
Throw in Enzo Maresca’s spat with Brighton’s spiky German child-boss Fabian Hurzeler and those two trips to good old Sussex by the sea have sent Chelsea’s campaign into a tailspin.
So it seemed particularly galling that after all that headhunting, Chelsea should be knocked out of the FA Cup, then handed their heaviest defeat of the Premier League season by the club they had supposedly gutted.
Now Chelsea are after Brighton’s Japanese winger Kaoru Mitoma, who scored my goal of the season against them in Friday’s 3-0 drubbing at the Amex.
Maresca, a curious appointment to replace Mauricio Pochettino in the summer, diminished his standing with Blues fans by claiming the Cup defeat would allow his team to concentrate on the league and the Conference League.
