After the final whistle at Stamford Bridge, a predictable scene emerges. A group of impeccably dressed men, looking disgruntled and entitled, make their way from the far side of the field towards the tunnel, en route to the home dressing room.

Among these figures is typically Behdad Eghbali, one of Chelsea’s co-owners, accompanied by two of the club’s numerous sporting directors, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart. Their brisk stride suggests a strong desire to understand any failure to secure a win, seemingly oblivious to the notion that some of the club’s issues might originate from their own decisions.

There’s an air of intimidation about their march, which might explain why Enzo Maresca’s behavior has grown increasingly erratic in recent weeks. Eghbali and his associates are now in search of a fifth head coach in less than four years.

While some criticisms stick, much of it doesn’t. The outcome is a manager who bears the brunt of responsibility for a club that has become a revolving door of player changes, making it challenging for fans to form attachments to players they barely recognize.

Let’s be clear, I’m not defending Maresca. I recall being at the post-match press conference at the City Ground last May when he bluntly told critics of his team to ‘f*** off’. It seems those critics might be having the last laugh now.

Behdad Eghbali, the Chelsea co-owner, has overseen an erratic recruitment policy at Chelsea

Maybe Enzo Maresca had had enough of having to justify himself to those who wield power without responsibility at Chelsea

Maresca and Eghbali appeared to celebrate narrowly securing a Champions League spot by defeating Nottingham Forest on the season’s final day, despite the team being assembled at a staggering cost of over £2 billion.

Maresca is a man of little charm and even less charisma and his departure will not be mourned by a fan-base many of whom are smart enough to realise that winning the Club World Cup in America in the summer meant very little apart from the prize money it reaped. If it had been important, Maresca would not be out of a job today.

Instead, right until the end, Maresca was still battling to make sense of the misshapen squad that the geniuses at the top have furnished him with, a squad that has some jewels – Cole Palmer, Estevao Willian and Moises Caicedo – but which is damned with helpings of lavish ordinariness, too, and conspicuously lacking in experience.

Maresca was beginning to build an identity of sorts but it was also clear from the petulant reaction of Palmer to being substituted against Aston Villa recently that the coach’s authority was being undermined in the eyes of the players.

That Maresca is being linked with a return to Manchester City should Pep Guardiola leave in the summer suggests that the Italian has attracted plenty of admirers for the job he has done in West London. 

Given his deficit in people skills, though, it would still represent a considerable gamble for City to opt for him.

What is clear beyond the briefings disseminated by Chelsea is that Maresca is far from being the main reason why their season is starting to run out of steam. It is not his fault that Chelsea were entered for the cheap bauble of the Club World Cup and stayed in it to the bitter end. The fatigue from that escapade is starting to bite.

Even more than that, the evident proliferation of strong voices at the top of the club and the hierarchy that existed above Maresca as head coach has led to confusion in both authority and direction. That confusion is not abating. If anything, it appears to be growing more damaging.

The fatigue from the Club World Cup escapade is starting to bite at Chelsea 

Now Eghbali and co-owner Todd Boehly (right) have to find a new coach who tolerates being quizzed about results

It may be that that also affects Chelsea’s chances of recruiting an established leading coach as Maresca’s replacement. It is hard to see a man of the strength and principle of Luis Enrique, for instance, tolerating Eghbali, Winstanley and Stewart marching over to quiz him about results straight after the final whistle.

There are suggestions that Liam Rosenior, coach at Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg, in Ligue 1, is in contention for the job. 

Rosenior is a fine coach and a man to be admired. Appointing him would be one of the smartest things the Chelsea regime could do.

Whether they would then give him the autonomy to be able to do the job properly is another matter altogether.