A Tale of Two Circuses - The Two 'Big Six' Sides Intent on Running Their Clubs to the Ground

Stuck in Constant Chaos, Can Chelsea and Man United Find a Way to Escape the Spiral?

Remember the days when Manchester United and Chelsea would duke it out in high-octane, drama-filled classics at the very top of the Premier League table? The 2000s were the good old days – two giants engaging in hand-to-hand, man-to-man combat that rarely produced a dull game.

However, if we fast forward to the present day, two of England’s most successful outfits are providing entertainment for very different reasons. Gone are the days where shrewd business and stable ownership made these two the kings of England - instead, that has been replaced with billions spent, a revolving door of managers, and next to zero progress.

Never compare Man United to Chelsea again, we own English football pic.twitter.com/Dm3g9g9LhJ

— AWESOME FOCUS 💰 (@awesomelyfocus) January 5, 2026

Over the last five years or so, the two institutions have been slowly but consistently run into the ground, be it through poor management, questionable ownership, or completely inexplicable calamitous runs of form, and in recent days, both have only dug the respective holes even deeper.

Anger (at) Management

Both clubs sacked their managers just days into the new year: Enzo Maresca was dismissed after picking up just two wins in nine over the festive period, while Ruben Amorim was shown the door thanks to the lack of progress shown over his 14 months at the club.

While Maresca’s seemed harsh, particularly after masterminding success in both the Conference League and Club World Cup, Amorim’s seemed more justified, and the empty vacancy represented the chance for both clubs to restyle themselves with a talented manager who could lead them slowly back towards the top of the game.

However, if fans were hoping for a world-renowned manager to come in and attempt to right the ship, they have been hugely disappointed. In the last 24 hours, Chelsea brought in up-and-coming coach Liam Rosenior from sister club Strasbourg, while Man United have temporarily put ex-midfielder Darren Fletcher in charge of first-team matters.

🚨Rosenior: “I want us to play high-tempo, aggressive, front-foot football… I want the fans at home to be off their seat in the first ten minutes and feel like it's wave after wave.” [📷chelseafc] pic.twitter.com/cInrdAGuWA

— CFCDaily (@CFCDaily) January 7, 2026

To make matters worse, despite managers such as Xavi, Zinedine Zidane and now Enzo Maresca being available for hire, United are unbelievably considering handing the head coach role back to former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on an interim basis until the end of the season.

Fans of both teams are unhappy with their respective choices - granted, Rosenior is an undoubtedly talented manager, but having only been in charge of Derby County, Hull City and RC Strasbourg, the Englishman is not exactly blessed with big club experience.

Meanwhile, United’s choice is utterly baffling - having Darren Fletcher in charge as caretaker is absolutely fine, but to hand the reins back to Solskjaer three years after dismissing him for failing to live up to expectations in his previous spell is tantamount to insanity, and is certainly not an appointment which will see the club take positive steps.

🚨 Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Manchester United advance in positive talks over caretaker manager role.

As revealed yesterday, Ole wants the job and he’s a serious candidate with talks well underway.

No issues on contract lenght. Ole is ready to say YES.

Up to #MUFC. pic.twitter.com/jjsJQgbf8i

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 6, 2026

The Norwegian was most recently fired for underperforming with Fenerbahçe in the Turkish League - if he can’t succeed at one of Turkey’s biggest sides, there is not even the remotest chance that he can provide what Man United are looking for.

At the end of the day, the problem lies with the owners - Chelsea Blue Co., led by Todd Boehly and Behdad Egbali, and United’s Jim Ratcliffe-led INEOS both have made a habit of making bad decisions, whether it be presiding over managerial appointments or questionable transfer targets. What the masses will agree on is that they rarely get anything right.

How Not to Run a Football Club

Both sides effectively screwed themselves over with their most recent owners - though Chelsea’s shift in ownership was forced thanks to Roman Abramovich’s high standing in Russian politics following the start of the Ukraine/Russia conflict, anyone would have been better than Blue Co.

Since they took charge of the club, Boehly and Eghbali have turned it from a football club into a profit business - buying and selling mediocre talents without remorse, their blind trust in sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Lawrence Stewart has so far yielded little reward, save for the rare transfer that actually looks like decent business in the case of Cole Palmer and Willian Estevao.

✍️ The thing is, Boehly and Clearlake might have different ideas but both ideas have positive and negative sides to it. Nobody can claim one party is perfect and the other side isn't.

Boehly has good ideas, Clearlake does too but Clearlake's Egbali is more hands on and… pic.twitter.com/wbHBGLvYuC

— Vince™ (@Blue_Footy) September 7, 2024

However, for the most part, owner interference at the club has seen progress halted for the most part. Poor purchases such as Alejandro Garnacho, Axel Disasi, Raheem Sterling and most famously Mykhailo Mudryk have seen Chelsea go from an elite club to one that buys “potential”, as opposed to bringing in proven talent.

Combined with the fact that the Blue Co. ownership continues to fire managers at a similar rate to their predecessor despite many now broken promises suggesting otherwise, it is easy to see why the outlook at Chelsea is decidedly murky at the moment.

As for Man United, their ownership situation is nothing short of chaotic - when Ratcliffe and INEOS purchased a 27% stake for around £1.3 billion, they effectively bought control of all football operations, with the pre-existing majority owners, the Glazer family, controlling the business side of things with their 69% share.

The sacking of Rubén Amorim just makes Manchester United structure look stupid... back in October, Sir Jim Ratcliffe said in an interview that Rubén was a great coach and needs 3 years and compared him with Arteta not having the best couple of years at Arsenal, then saying Fergie… pic.twitter.com/83kzh1cfMX

— Shaun Irvine (@_shaunirvine) January 5, 2026

Safe to say, INEOS and Ratcliffe have not exactly endeared themselves to the club - firing Erik ten Haag and replacing him with Ruben Amorim showed promise, indicating they were erring on the long-term project-style manager over the two-seasons-and-bust manager, but his recent sacking put paid to that idea.

The news was made worse by the fact that just three months before Amorim was sacked, Ratcliffe was interviewed, and when asked of Amorim’s increasingly tenuous position as manager, the billionaire replied, “I need to give the manager at least three years.” This statement came in October, just 12 months into the storied three years Ratcliffe was giving him.

Just three months later, Amorim is gone, and whatever trust the United fans had in Ratcliffe will now surely have evaporated - like the situation at Chelsea, United’s newest owners have now broken their own promises, creating a platform for what can only be an unsustainable future made of questions and half-cooked answers.

Relationship Counselling

The stability of both clubs is only weakened further by the fact that both of their recently sacked managers consistently questioned their superiors, fraying whatever relationship there actually was between them.

Maresca was the more guilty of the two - he consistently berated the board, and inadvertently, the sporting directors for failing to provide him with a competent centre in order to make up for Levi Colwill’s long-term absence.

He also consistently recited that the expectations that had been placed upon him were unfair - to the public, his expectations were to compete for a top four finish and to be competitive both domestically and in Europe, but following his success at the Club World Cup, expectations may have been raised behind the scenes, making the Italian increasingly uncomfortable.

It has also been reported that Maresca was unabashed in telling the owners that on multiple occasions he had entered into talks with Manchester City over becoming Pep Guardiola’s potential successor - to have been hired as a long-term project manager, only to then enter into talks with another club of your own volition, was unacceptable, and likely played a huge part in his firing.

Maresca has his eyes set on City. He engineered his move from Chelsea because of that . pic.twitter.com/OkRShk5Zrb

— Genghis Khan (@itz_danialves) January 1, 2026

Amorim was little better - his constant defence of his three-at-the-back formation despite it clearly not suiting his squad quickly saw faith in him wane. Even as recently as last week, he directly criticised the United hierarchy for a “lack of dialogue” between himself and his superiors, a sure-fire way to frustrate those with the power to get rid of you at any time.

These public spats, mixed with exceptionally poor performances such as the Europa League final disappointment against Tottenham and the shock loss to Grimsby in the Carabao Cup, despite being considered favourites for both only saw scrutiny magnify on Amorim, and his press conference a day before his sacking was the final nail in the coffin.

In an explosive interview after United’s 1-1 draw with Leeds on Sunday, Amorim didn’t hold back, saying, “I just want to say that I am going to be the MANAGER of this team, not just the coach, and I was really clear on that.”

“And that is going to finish in 18 months and then everyone is going to move on - that was the deal, that is my job … not to be the coach. If people cannot handle the Gary Nevilles, the criticism, everything, we need to change the club. I just want to say that.”

Gary Neville has done an excellent job at exposing how idiotic Sir Jim Ratcliffe is

How this interview has made the light of day is beyond me

No amount of waffle about Amorim is going to hide the rest of alarming decisions they discuss in this 44 min interview

Please watch! pic.twitter.com/3CBwgUJ3ax

— Moon Man Utd (@Moon_AGD) March 10, 2025

Though somewhat a coded message, even Amorim could not mask the blatant dig he was taking at that United hierarchy, and it proved to be the last straw.

Now both sides find themselves back at square one halfway through the season, a situation no club wants to find themselves in.

In fairness, both outfits are poised to launch an attack on the top four, with Chelsea in fifth and United in sixth, both within three points of fourth-placed Liverpool. However, with all the change and no shortage of division at both clubs, progress will be hard to find between now and the end of the campaign.

Rosenior and (most likely) Solskjaer have big jobs on their hands. Rosenior in particular faces a dizzying task - as the new permanent manager, he needs to quickly build trust and a rapport with the fans, or he could soon find himself in the same predicament as Maresca, who at times was booed throughout his tenure at United.

He needs to keep his head down and get on with the job, or another war of words could soon commence, and we all know who comes out on top.

As for whoever United appoint next, they will not be given the permanent role, barring a miracle, so the pressure is significantly less than that at Chelsea. However, be it Solskjaer, Maresca, or even Darren Fletcher, they will be desperate to make a good impression and at least leave the club in a better place than where they found it.

However, given recent history, both clubs will find a way of digging the hole deeper. It is truly the tale of two circuses, and these two clowns are the leading act.