Maverick spent time under Met leader replaced by new chief (14)
I believe the answer is:
superintendent
'chief' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'maverick spent time under met leader replaced by new' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'time' could be 'ten' (I've seen this before) and 'ten' is present in the answer.
'under' could be 'per' (both can mean 'in accordance with') and 'per' is located in the answer.
'new' could be 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament) and 'n' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for superintendent that I've seen before include "Senior police officer" , "Police rank" , "One who is in charge of an organisation" , "Police chief" , "Overseer; police officer" .)