Image Credit: @FabrizioRomano Twitter
It is the first week of 2026 and there is already huge news regarding two of the Premier League’s Big 6 clubs. Manchester United and Chelsea are both clubs that have shocked the footballing world with their respective announcements this week as both clubs have announced the departures of their managers, Ruben Amorim and Enzo Mascara. Both departures come as a surprise for their own different reasons, when it came to Ruben Amorim the Manchester United higher ups had been reported by multiple sources to be firmly behind the Portuguese manager despite the club’s long list of underwhelming results and performances. Enzo Mascara’s case is slightly different as the Italian manager had a fantastic first season with Chelsea which saw the club win the UEFA Europa Conference League and 2025 FIFA Club World Cup as well as secure Champions League football for this current season after placing 4th in the Premier League last season. Chelsea were at one point this season in the title race until a recent patch of bad form along with the growing tensions behind the scenes between the Chelsea higher ups and Mascara. Now as of December 6th 2025, Chelsea seem to have found new manager while Manchester United are still in the market for new club manager for the future.
What Happened with Mascara?
As previously mentioned, Enzo Mascara had a fantastic start to life at Chelsea and achieved quite a lot in his first season at the club. Following that success, Chelsea were one of the busiest clubs in the summer transfer window with massive outgoings as well as massive signings. As we have seen with Chelsea over the past few years under the new ownership of Todd Boehly, the club’s structure and transfer strategy has changed to prioritise financial success rather than trying to build a project that would lead the club to more football related success. Transfer window after transfer window we see Chelsea sell many players both experienced first team regulars and youth academy graduates with no real rhyme or reason and those sales are followed up by the club signing players that they seemingly do not need. This type of transfer strategy was something that Mascara was not a fan of as the Italian manager in the summer requested a new Centre Back signing following the injury to Levi Colwill back in August 2025 and even mentioned it in a Press Conference to help push for the signing but the club informed Mascara that he already has a replacement in the form of the young Chelsea academy graduate Josh Acheampong.
This is one of the many behind the scenes issues that have been brewing for Chelsea that caused the tension between the club and the manager. Enzo Mascara did not feel supported by the Chelsea board as he mentioned during his post-match press conference following Chelsea’s 2-0 victory over Everton. The tensions continued to brew as Chelsea began a poor run of form where they had no wins in their last 4 Premier League games following the previously mentioned press conference however as many reports have stated the poor run of form was not the major issue between Mascara and Chelsea. The growing tensions came from Mascara not feeling involved in the decision-making process when it came to transfers at the club, which led to Mascara feeling not supported by the club. The message became clear that Enzo Mascara did not want to continue at Chelsea when he did not attend the post-match press conference following the 2-2 draw to AFC Bournemouth. Chelsea confirmed Enzo Mascara departure on the 1st January 2026.
What Happened with Amorim?
Ruben Amorim’s tenure at Manchester United is not one to remember as the Portuguese manager was head coach of the club for 63 games and managed 25 wins, 15 draws and 23 losses in all competitions. The Portuguese manager famously said in the press conference after his first 3 games in charge of Manchester United that “a storm is coming”, alluding to the fact that Man Utd were in for a tough few months under his leadership as he claimed it was going to take a long time for his system to be implemented with the Man Utd team he had. Ruben Amorim was not incorrect about said ”storm” as Man Utd fell into their worst Premier League form in their history as the club failed to win back-to-back games for the remainder of that season and ended their campaign in their worst ever league finish in the bottom half of the table at 15th. The silver lining in that horrid season was Man Utd’s unbeaten record in the Europa League which saw them reach the finals of the competition, that however is where the silver lining ends as Man Utd failed to beat Tottenham Hotspur in the final and failed to secure a spot in the Champions League.
Despite the terrible start to life at Man Utd, the Man Utd board still backed Amorim and even spent big in the summer transfer window to massively improve the areas in the squad, such as the attackers and goalkeeper, to help Ruben Amorim better implement his 3-4-2-1 system. Even with all the backing and new recruitment, Man Utd’s fortunes never seemed to change as they struggled to win more than 3 games in a row and 3 wins in a row just so happened to be the club’s longest and only win streak under Amorim since his appointment. No European football, no EFL cup games, 1 game a week and United showed no signs of improving. It reached a point where it was reported that Man Utd’s higher ups suggested that Amorim adapt his system, something the Portuguese manager claimed many times he would not do as he did not see an issue with his system, which was the starting point of the tension between Amorim and the board.
The club was very aware of the type of system manager Ruben Amorim was before appointing him and Amorim defended his system during his entire tenure at the club so for Man Utd to question the system was the start of the breakdown. The explosion of the breakdown came in a post-match press conference following United’s 1-1 draw against Leeds United. Ruben Amorim stormed off after claiming that he is the manager of Man Utd and not the “Head Coach” and that everyone else around him must their jobs and he will do his. It has come out in reports that Ruben Amorim’s comments were in response to the fact that Man Utd were not going to sign the players he wants, Amorim felt that he would not be as involved in the club’s transfer strategy as much as he thought he would be similarity to Enzo Mascara. This inevitably broke the relationship between the club and Amorim, and shortly after the next day the news broke of Amorim’s departure from the club. Manchester United confirmed on the 5th January 2026 that Ruben Amorim would no longer be Head Coach.
What’s Next for Both Clubs?
It did not take long for Manchester United to announce that Darren Fletcher would be the interim manager of Man Utd until the club finds a manager who would see out the rest of this season. The reported plans are for the club to look for a caretaker manager now to see out the season and only after that will the club look for a permanent manager to take over in June. Talks have already begun as Ole Gunnar Solskjær has already had meetings with Man Utd to be caretaker manager as the Norwegian is more than keen on managing Man Utd again. For Chelsea they did not have to look very far as they have appointment the manager of French club RC Strasbourg Alsace, Liam Rosenior. This decision seemed like an obvious one considering both Chelsea and Strasbourg fall under the BlueCo ownership and BlueCo has been known to use Strasbourg to help develop Chelsea’s future signing. Over the next few months, we will see how new manager Liam Rosenior will handle the pressure of managing Chelsea and we will see how Man Utd will play without Amorim’s system as well as see who will be caretaker manager for the foreseeable future.
