There was a time when the qualifications required to manage Chelsea seemed to entail winning the Champions League, not the Championship. There is a history of Italian managers at Stamford Bridge but they used to arrive having taken charge of more games against Roma than Rotherham, Inter than Ipswich, Milan than Millwall.
But perhaps Enzo Maresca is the most appropriate soon-to-be-confirmed appointment for the new Chelsea: many of their signings have been punts on potential, based on very little experience of first-team football at high levels but with the assumption they have a high ceiling. Enter a manager with a similar rawness: 14 games at Parma, one season at Leicester, neither of them in the first division in their respective countries. Once again, Chelsea believe they are the talent spotters supreme.
