Liam Rosenior has emerged as the front-runner to replace Enzo Maresca as Chelsea’s head coach after impressing in France with Bruco’s Strasbourg, and now he has also spoken out.
Manager Liam Rosenior has broken his silence on Chelsea’s vacant role amid rumors that Strasbourg’s current head coach could replace Enzo Maresca at Stamford Bridge. The club announced Maresca’s departure on Thursday, just 48 hours after a 2-2 draw with AFC Bournemouth.
During his debut season, Maresca qualified for the Club World Cup and Conference League, while also leading the Blues back into the Champions League. Rosenior has emerged as a potential successor to the Italian after his impressive spell at Strasbourg, which also owns BlueCo.
Reports suggest the 41-year-old has been on the radar of decision-makers in west London throughout his time in France. Last season, the former Hull City manager led Strasbourg to qualification for the Conference League with a team packed with promising young talent.
Rosenior has regularly achieved notable wins against Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique Lyon and Marseille. It remains unclear whether he will be named as Maresca’s permanent replacement.
On Friday, Rosenior met with the media in France ahead of Strasbourg’s Ligue 1 match against OGC Nice. The 41-year-old dodged a question linking him to moving to London, saying: “I’m going to talk about Nice, because that’s my job.”
read more: Strasbourg reveal plans to replace Liam Rosenior in new Chelsea bossread more: Who is Liam Rosenior and why could he be the next Chelsea manager?
He added: “There’s a lot of noise and speculation going around, but as a coach it would be a mistake to get caught up in that. My job is here and I love this club.”
“No, I haven’t talked to the players about it. There’s no need to. They’ve connected and we’ve had some light banter. But we’ve been focused on our job. The goal is to continue to do great things here.”
“There are zero guarantees in life. You never know what tomorrow will bring. I’m just doing my job. There’s already speculation. I don’t want to guarantee how long I’ll be here, but I’m enjoying myself here every day and I’ll continue to do so as long as I’m here. I love this club, but I can’t guarantee anything. Nobody can guarantee it.”
Rosenior also said: “I want to do my job here. It’s easy. The reality today is that I am the manager of Strasbourg and I am focused on my position.”
“We are part of the same group, so there is some interaction,” he admitted. “To be honest, you can never control everything in life. You could be here for years and then say you’re going to get fired.”
Still, Football London has reported that Rosenior has previously spoken out about his thoughts on Chelsea’s historic approach to management and what it will take for him to thrive at the club, should he win the nomination.
Appearing on Sky Sports’ The Debate in 2019, Rosenior effectively laid out the conditions for taking over a club like Chelsea, stressing that managers need enough time to implement their vision and that constantly sacking them is counterproductive.
“We’re talking about Antonio Conte’s frustrations in terms of the transfer window and getting the players he wants to play the way he wants them to play,” he said.
“At the time, he was very vocal about his frustrations. Now we’ve got another manager (Maurizio Sarri) with a completely different philosophy. Are we going to support him? Or is it going to be another case of ‘It’s not working, let’s move on to the next manager’?”
“Another manager comes along and wants this player and that player. It’s not going to work out that way. There will come a point where you have to go through some difficult times to have long-term success.”
“That’s very difficult. The Chelsea board’s job is to decide: ‘Is this a player that we back up long-term?'” Having board support is not just about the transfer budget.
“The club’s recent history is that if things don’t go well and things don’t go our way, we change managers. That automatically puts pressure on Sarri. For me, there comes a point where I say: ‘He’s our manager for the next two years, the reason we appointed him is to build something.’
“At the moment Chelsea have lost to Manchester City and Liverpool. So what do you expect from them?”
These comments were made during Roman Abramovich’s tenure as the West London club’s owner. The Russian oligarchy sold the Blues to Todd Boley and Clearlake Capital for a staggering £4.25bn in May 2022, but the revolving door policy in the dugout continues.
Thomas Tuchel was in charge when the takeover took place, but his tenure was cut short at the start of the 2022/23 season. Graham Potter’s reign lasted less than seven months before Frank Lampard took over on an interim basis.
Mauricio Pochettino was in charge of Chelsea for just one season, and Maresca’s 18-year tenure was the longest under the current owner. The Italian was appointed after just one season at Leicester City.
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