John Terry, an active social media user, commented on Maresca's departure in a TikTok video shortly after the firing was confirmed on New Year's Day.

He said: "Enzo Maresca has just been sacked by Chelsea and, honestly, I'm completely surprised; I didn't expect it. I know things haven't gone the way he would have wanted lately. You can see and hear that there has been tension.

I've received a lot of calls this morning following the news, and everyone expects me to know what's going on. I have no idea what's going on; I'm not involved with the first team, so I don't know.

It's just my opinion from a distance, but it's clear there has been tension between the manager and the owner, and they have made this decision."

McFarlane coached Chelsea in their Premier League away games against Manchester City and Fulham.

After securing a creditable 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium thanks to a last-minute goal from Enzo Fernandez, the Blues lost 2-1 at Craven Cottage following Marc Cucurella's sending-off midway through the first half.

Rosenior then decided to promote McFarlane to the first-team coaching staff, leaving behind his youth team responsibilities.

On Jimmy Bullard's "Golf Life" YouTube channel, Terry admitted he would have gladly accepted the interim coaching role if the club had asked him, though he was also puzzled by not being part of McFarlane's coaching team for the two games he oversaw.

"I wasn't upset, but rather frustrated, because I was part of the under-21 group that went away," Terry said.

"So, even though I didn't coach the team, Calum did, and he did very well. He got a good result in the game.

I feel like I should have been a part of that. Now, listen. People have to make decisions. I love it when people make decisions and say yes or no. And it's clear the owners or whoever made those decisions, the sporting directors said 'no' to including me for whatever reason, but I don't know why."

Terry has experience as an assistant coach to Dean Smith, with whom he worked at Aston Villa from 2018 to 2021 and later at Leicester City in 2023.

He was recently linked to the Oxford United coaching job and, although he has always insisted he was never a candidate for that position, he admitted he needs more head coaching experience if he wants to fulfill his dream of coaching Chelsea.

"I was recently linked to the Oxford job, which ... there's no truth to it at all," Terry continued.

"I hadn't spoken to them. I hadn't applied. And I'm not going to. As you know, I'm at the academy. I work with the under-18s and under-21s. I love my job there. It's part-time.

I've always said that if it were ever put to me at Chelsea, I'd love to take it, but realistically, could I get it without doing other things? Probably not."

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