Enzo Marasca has left his job as Chelsea manager.
The New Year celebrations were still in their last embers when the news was concerned.
It follows a disappointing December during which the club won just one of their seven games. Having once been within three points of Premier League leaders Arsenal, the gap is now 15 points.
No club has dropped more points from winning positions in the League so far, 13 of them at home.
There was also evidence of a growing chasm between the Italian and the club hierarchy, following comments he made after the recent victory over Everton at Stamford Bridge, when he implied he was not given enough support for the policy of rotating what remains one of the youngest squads in the division. The Italian was also unhappy about the sway that the medical department had at the club, believing that he should decide when a player was fit enough to pay and not them.
And although he had credit in the bank after his first season at the club – achieving Champions league football and winning both the Europa Conference League, and the Club World Cup – that was not inexhaustible.
He will not want for offers. He has already been linked with Juventus and touted as a successor to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
But yet again Chelsea have shown they are ruthless when deciding somebody is not aligned with their long-term strategy.
