Before Liam Rosenior was officially appointed Chelsea head coach, his face and voice were doing the rounds on social media. A clip from his days as Strasbourg boss with the now infamous quote, “in English, ‘manage’, if you split the two words ‘man’ and ‘age’, so you’re ageing men”, meant this job was always going to be difficult.
From day one, neutral supporters from all over the country did not take him seriously. Chelsea fans, with their team the brunt of the joke, also struggled. What followed was a head coach many people believed talked too much and his words were not backed up by the players on the pitch.
BlueCo had worked with Rosenior closely during his time at Strasbourg, where he did an excellent job, with the sporting directors knowing exactly the ins and outs of the 41-year-old’s operation at Stade de Meinau. So much has changed at Stamford Bridge since BlueCo bought the club in May 2022 and the ownership group is trying to take the Blues back to the days of success they enjoyed in Roman Abramovich’s reign.
Rosenior, they thought, was the answer, someone to spearhead their ambitious model. A bright, up-and-coming English coach with character and charisma, albeit unconventional sometimes in the way he presents himself. Rosenior knew there would be a stigma around him when he was appointed – none of that came as a shock, he said, but it became difficult for people to take him seriously.
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BlueCo, crucially, always did take him seriously. There was just an acceptance in the end that this job perhaps came too early for the young coach.
It didn’t always look that way, though, with Rosenior getting off to a really encouraging start. Seven victories from his first nine matches in charge in all competitions – with the only two defeats coming against high-flying Arsenal – had people talking about Rosenior for the right reasons.
Momentarily, anyway. Then it all started to go wrong. The trip to Paris in early-to-mid-March is where it all seemed to turn for Rosenior. The start of the end in many respects.
Losing to the European champions, arguably the best team on the planet right now – there’s no shame in that. The context around that defeat leads to a more damning verdict, however.
Chelsea were at least matching Luis Enrique’s PSG side for 74 minutes in the French capital. With the score level at 2-2 at Parc des Princes, a careless mistake from goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen led to Vitinha putting PSG back ahead. Then it was four, and then it was five. In the space of 20 minutes, Chelsea’s Champions League hopes were dashed.
This all felt very avoidable. Robert Sanchez was excellent for Chelsea in the first half of the season (and the back end of last). It felt like Sanchez, who has had more downs than ups during his time at Stamford Bridge, had turned a corner.
The Spanish goalkeeper made a slight mistake in Chelsea’s defeat away at Arsenal on March 1 and found himself on the bench for the trip to Aston Villa a few days later. Jorgensen played well that day but cost Chelsea the tie in France a week later.
It felt like a huge mistake at the time to take Sanchez out and dent his confidence. It still does, almost two months on. An unnecessary confidence-denter. Since being reintegrated back into the team, Sanchez’s form has been horrendous.
Rosenior, despite the capitulation in Paris, remained upbeat. He had to; Newcastle United were the visitors to Stamford Bridge three days later. A 1-0 defeat to the Magpies threatened an unwanted losing run from Chelsea’s perspective, particularly with PSG visiting west London for the second leg a few days after.
That, rather inevitably, ended in a comfortable PSG win and fans started to turn on the former Chelsea head coach. And then came the Enzo Fernandez bombshell.
After flirting with a move to Real Madrid, Rosenior, in collaboration with the club’s sporting leadership team, decided to take a stand and ban Fernandez for his public comments. They chose not to suspend Marc Cucurella, who similarly teased a move away from Stamford Bridge in an interview.
Fernandez would sit out of the FA Cup win over Port Vale and the defeat in the Premier League to Manchester City. Rosenior came under fire for such a big decision and he risked upsetting a key player in Fernandez even further. Interestingly, the club’s position on the Argentine midfielder changed as a result and he is no longer seen as the ‘untouchable’ figure he once was in terms of a move away in the summer transfer window.
A lot of these players were left surprised and disappointed with Enzo Maresca’s departure in January. Winning over a dressing room is always difficult. Even more so when they’re not over their ex.
There’s a remarkable statistic doing the rounds at the moment: Chelsea have been outrun in every single Premier League match this season. A lack of effort, or something to do with how fatigued these players are, who have been non-stop for two seasons straight now? Rosenior hinted at it being the former in his final press conference as Chelsea head coach.
Rosenior came in mid-season which is always difficult for a head coach, but again he wasn’t interested in excuses. football.london asked him about just that in his first-ever press conference at Cobham: “That [to be judged after a full summer] is impossible here. It is impossible for me to be judged next season.
“It’s not ideal, every coach would love to come in the summer, be able to sit for six weeks in the sun, develop your philosophy, learn about players. But that is not the reality of football.”
Not being able to do those things he listed in January hampered Rosenior. There was not a lot of time for him to work with his squad on the training ground. Though, in his final weeks as Chelsea boss, he did have more opportunities to implement his ideas, but they were not getting across to the players. That, or he lost the dressing room, something he did not want to talk about during his farewell press conference in Brighton.
Chelsea supporters, while most of them wanted Rosenior sacked, believe BlueCo are the main reason for the club’s decline. There was a big protest ahead of Rosenior’s final home match in charge of Chelsea, where hundreds of supporters marched towards Stamford Bridge and voiced their discontent with how BlueCo are running things.
So far, the ownership group, led by the club’s co-owner Behdad Eghbali, have been unable to show signs of a positive long-term model. Last season saw Chelsea lift two major honours, including the inaugural revamped FIFA Club World Cup, and that was definitely a step forward for BlueCo. This season, though, there have been two steps back.
Rosenior’s time at Chelsea reached its conclusion on Wednesday where key members of the club’s sporting leadership team held crisis talks over his future. While the players were given the day off, which is always the case after a game win/lose/draw, Chelsea chiefs came to the decision to part company with Rosenior.
It is hard to believe Eghbali made these comments last week: “On Liam, we had the opportunity to work with him daily for 18 months, so we knew what we were getting.
“We think he has every attribute to be successful here. He got off to a great start. We’ve had a tough past five, six matches, but I think we’re behind Liam. Of course, it’s a results business, but we think he can be successful long term.”
With five defeats on the spin and no goals in that time, as well as match-going supporters turning on him, Chelsea decided to pull the plug four days before their FA Cup semi-final. It is always an enormous decision to make and there is no ideal time to make it.
Blues bigwigs will be hoping the change can inject some spirit back into the players for the trip to Wembley, with a shot at a major final on the line. That is the hope, football.london understands, and one of the reasons why they believe the timing was so crucial.
This isn’t a good look for BlueCo. Dismissing a young head coach just three-and-a-half months into a six-and-a-half-year contract, it does not reflect well. Senior figures within the consortium realise that and have accepted accountability that some wrong decisions have been made – and this has to be one of them – and will now bide their time when it comes to replacing Rosenior.
football.london understands, at the time of writing, there are no active talks with any prospective successors. The club will conduct a careful, considered process to find a coach who aligns with their long-term ambition and vision. In the meantime, Calum McFarlane will take interim charge. Once again.
You can’t help but feel some sympathy for Rosenior. From the first minute he walked into the job, he was unfairly ridiculed and mocked. It felt like such an enormous job to turn the country-wide perception around.
He ultimately failed in doing that but an exciting career in management awaits him. Rosenior insisted throughout his short reign at Chelsea, no matter how difficult times were, that he was enjoying the pressure and responsibility.
It became too much in the end, though. Whether or not Rosenior will look back on these few months fondly remains to be seen.
One positive for Rosenior is he never got round to buying a house.
