Gianfranco Zola’s mysterious Chelsea tenure will come to an end

Gianfranco Zola will depart Chelsea when his contract runs out this summer. His time back at Chelsea has been mysterious as is his future.

Currently, only two numbers can be said to have been “retired” by Chelsea: 25 and 26. No kit number has been officially retired, but no player has worn either number since the departure of Gianfranco Zola or John Terry. It is a testament to their meaning at Chelsea.

Last season, Zola finally made his way back to Chelsea as one of Maurizio Sarri’s assistant managers. Or perhaps more accurately, the assistant to the first team coach.

With Maurizio Sarri gone, Zola’s fate was unknown. But now it appears that he will leave when his contract expires. Many questions remain about Zola’s time at Chelsea this previous season.

It is always hard to tell the exact influence of an assistant coach. Zola handled a few pressers (letting transfer targets slip along the way) but that is the only real indication of the man himself. Sarri brought along his coaching staff from Napoli, so it is hard to tell where Zola slotted in and how much he actually had to do.

One perceived reason he was brought back was for his connection to Chelsea. Without Steve Holland, there was no one to create a continuity between one manager and the next. Zola was believed to have been brought in to help bridge the gap for Sarri. It never really worked out.

With Frank Lampard and Jody Morris almost certainly coming in, there was the potential for a spot to be cleared for Zola. Managers have multiple assistants all the time and it would have served as a point of continuity between Sarri’s tenure and Lampard’s. But Zola seems uninterested in that or an ambassador position.

Perhaps Zola stepped into the shadows of management a bit to get fresh ideas for his own managerial career. His career did seem promising while at Watford, but every club after that showed that something was missing. Prior to joining Chelsea’s staff, Zola had been out of the game since 2017 when he was Birmingham City’s manager.

In the intervening period, he showed up often at Chelsea. Perhaps he was looking to learn fresh ideas from Antonio Conte and latter Sarri to restart his own managerial career. Given that Lampard has fewer years as a manger under his belt than Zola, it makes sense that Zola would opt to leave to forge his own way again.

But, frankly, no one really knows what effect Zola had in Sarri’s season. No one really knows why he is not being given a seat at Lampard’s table (other than perhaps being ready to restart his own career). Zola spent a year at Chelsea and it will be a footnote on his career that comes up on bar trivia nights.

Zola was a magician at Stamford Bridge in his day. But that was over two decades ago and so much has changed for Chelsea. Zola will always be welcomed back if he wants to return, but this previous year has been nothing if not a conundrum.