Chelsea have sacked head coach Liam Rosenior after just three-and-a-half months in charge.
Rosenior was appointed after Enzo Maresca’s abrupt departure from Stamford Bridge and leaves 23 games into a six-and-a-half-year contract
After a promising start under the former Hull City and Strasbourg boss, when the Blues won six out of his first seven matches, their form has completely and utterly collapsed.
Chelsea have lost seven of their past eight matches, with the only break in that slump a 7-0 FA Cup win over League One Port Vale.
Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at Brighton was Rosenior’s fifth consecutive league defeat — all without scoring a goal, their longest top flight goalless streak since 1912 — after which Rosenior lambasted his players for a lack of effort and professionalism.
With the club seven points shy of the Champions League places after playing 34 games, one more than fifth-placed Liverpool, and an FA Cup semifinal against Leeds on the horizon, Chelsea’s hierarchy have decided to act.
Calum McFarlane, who led the team for two games after Maresca’s exit, will take interim charge until the end of the season.
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Why did Chelsea sack Liam Rosenior?
In a statement, Chelsea pinpointed their recent slump, which also featured an 8-2 aggregate thrashing at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the Champions League.
“Chelsea Football Club has today parted company with head coach Liam Rosenior. On behalf of everyone at Chelsea FC, we would like to place on record our gratitude to Liam and his staff for all their efforts during their time with the club,” the statement read. “Liam has always conducted himself with the highest integrity and professionalism following his appointment midway through the season.
“This has not been a decision the club has taken lightly, however recent results and performances have fallen below the necessary standards with still so much more to play for this season. Everyone at Chelsea FC wishes Liam every success in the future.
“Calum McFarlane will take charge of the team as interim head coach until the end of the season with support from existing club backroom staff, as we strive to achieve European qualification and progress in the FA Cup.
“As the club works to bring stability to the head coach position, we will undertake a process of self-reflection to make the right long-term appointment.”
Analysis: Who will be next Chelsea manager?
The obvious follow-up to that question is: “Who would want to be the next Chelsea manager?”
Of course, someone will take it. These are the two-time European and reigning world champions, one of the most glamorous, powerful and defining clubs of the Premier League era. But in terms of getting the coach they want after the noted “process of self-reflection”, Chelsea’s BlueCo ownership group might well have painted themselves into a corner.
Since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, led by Behdad Eghbali, took the reins at Stamford Bridge after UK government sanctions brought the end of Roman Abramovich’s tenure, Chelsea have spent lavishly – their American hedge-fund brains trust believing there were inefficiencies to be exploited within soccer’s transfer market.
While that diagnosis is true, the prescription of stockpiling young players on long contracts has obvious flaws. During their slump under Rosenior, mirroring downturns under predecessors Maresca and Maurizio Pochettino, Chelsea appeared to lack leadership on the field when games have started to run away from them. The April 12 defeat to Manchester City, where the Blues acquitted themselves well and could have led at halftime before subsiding to a meek 3-0 loss, was a prime example.
Additionally, attitude and discipline problems – such as Rosenior’s decision to internally discipline key midfielder Enzo Fernandez with a two-game suspension for speaking in vaguely positive terms about a hypothetical transfer to Real Madrid – are hard to rein in when the owners have already sacked Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Maurizio Pochettino, Maresca and now Rosenior and the players are on bumper contracts, while knowing they will always represent sellable assets for Boehly and Eghbali’s wheeling and dealing operation.
A report in the Telegraph on Wednesday, prior to confirmation of Rosenior’s sacking, said BlueCo was “weighing up a change of strategy” and that they would pursue a “head coach who has experience at the highest level”. If we’re talking Champions League experience, that was not true of Potter, Maresca or Rosenior before they arrived at Stamford Bridge.
Given the unusual squad make-up and volatile boardroom situation, it is questionable whether a manager of such credentials would want any part of the west London melodrama. On the other hand, Tuchel, Potter and Pochettino will all lead teams at the World Cup this summer and Maresca has been heavily linked to succeeding Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. An association with Chelsea need not be terminal for a gifted coach; people in football are aware of a frequently nonsensical context.
Frank Lampard, who led Chelsea prior to Tuchel’s Champions League-winning tenure before returning to take interim charge when Potter was sacked in 2023, would be a popular choice among fans to have another crack after his inspired job in leading Coventry City to promotion to the Premier League. After a tough time in his coaching career, however, it’s questionable whether Lampard would wish to indulge the club where he is the all-time top scorer, now his star is once again on the rise.
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Lampard’s long-time Stamford Bridge captain John Terry will no doubt be another name in the frame, but a stint as an assistant at Aston Villa does not tick BlueCo’s new criteria. While we’re combing through mid-2000s club legends, Jose Mourinho might lick his lips at the prospect of a third spell at Chelsea, although the latter-day cumudgeonly version of the ‘Special One’ and a callow young squad is probably a recipe for disaster.
Chelsea’s final home game of this season will be against Tottenham, potentially a very bleak scene indeed. If Roberto De Zerbi fails to save Spurs from the drop, a coach know to have admirers across the Premier League might find himself as the subject of an approach. Andoni Iraola and Oliver Glasner will leave Bournemouth and Crystal Palace respectively at the end of the season and will have their pick of jobs, while another ex-Chelsea man, Cesc Fabregas, has won admirers at Como and is the early bookmakers’ favourite.
Iraola, Glasner or Fabregas could all feasibly be persuaded to be Chelsea’s next head coach. But the fact remains that they, or anyone else, have a growing list of reasons not to bother.
