'Good idea' or taking 'massive chance' - is Rosenior ready for Chelsea?

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Image caption,

Liam Rosenior's last involvement in the Premier League was as a player for Brighton in 2017

ByEmlyn Begley

BBC Sport journalist

Liam Rosenior is the leading contender to be the new Chelsea manager - just 18 months after being sacked by Championship side Hull City - so why is he favourite, and would appointing him be a good decision?

The 41-year-old Englishman has impressed with French Ligue 1 club Strasbourg, who are also part of Chelsea owners the BlueCo group, leading to this chance to move across to the Londoners.

He would take over from Enzo Maresca, who won the Club World Cup in the summer, but became the latest Blues boss to fall out with the hierarchy and left on Thursday.

"They will get someone in who is young and easy to manipulate," said BBC pundit and former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin.

If appointed, Rosenior would be the fourth out of the past five Chelsea managers to have managed in the Championship.

He took his pre-match news conference as usual before Strasbourg's game against Nice on Saturday.

"I'm going to talk about Nice because that's my job," he said in quotes reported by local media outlet DNA., external

"There's a lot of noise, a lot of speculation, but as a coach, if you get involved, you fail.

"I don't want to guarantee how long I'll be here, but I enjoy myself here every day. I love this club, but I can't guarantee anything. Nobody can.

"I could say I'm going to stay here for years and then get fired."

About having contact with Chelsea, he said: "There are discussions because we're part of the same group."

BBC Sport takes a look at his career to date.

Rosenior's youthful Strasbourg team

One of Rosenior's most striking achievements with Strasbourg has been guiding them into the top reaches of Ligue 1 while fielding a team of youngsters, something which would stand him in good stead with Chelsea.

The average age of the Blues' line-up in the Premier League last season was 24 years and 36 days, the lowest of any team across a Premier League campaign.

Their oldest player is Tosin Adarabioyo, 28, and earlier this season they became the first team to have three teenagers on the scoresheet in a Champions League game.

Meanwhile, in August Strasbourg became the first club in Europe's top five leagues to play a team of players all born in the 2000s - and had an average age of 20 years and 283 days for a Ligue 1 game against Monaco. The oldest player was 22.

Former England left-back Ben Chilwell, who joined Strasbourg from Chelsea in the summer, spoke to BBC Sport's Nizaar Kinsella in November about Rosenior's leadership style.

"The manager is very good at managing a young dressing room," he said. "It's not necessarily an immature dressing room but a young dressing room that doesn't have the experience of knowing what it takes yet to win stuff.

"The manager wants to win stuff this season, wants us to qualify for the Champions League, wants us to win the French Cup, wants us to win the Conference League."

Strasbourg finished seventh last season, and sit in the same position again after 16 games of this campaign.

They finished top of this season's Conference League group with five wins and a draw - including victories over Crystal Palace and Aberdeen.

But Rosenior, who has already managed Chelsea's Liam Delap at Hull City and Andrey Santos at Strasbourg last season, could now swap the Conference League for the Champions League.

Flexible tactically and plenty of passes - Rosenior at Strasbourg

Strasbourg's Ligue 1 form has dipped in recent months though, with only one win in the past six Ligue 1 games.

In the middle of October they were in third place, just one point off leaders Paris St-Germain, but they are now 14 points behind current leaders Lens.

Rosenior has not been wedded to a shape, playing in both a 4-2-3-1 and a 3-4-3 formation.

They play a passing style, with the third highest number of passes in Ligue 1 this season - but they are only eighth for passes in the opposition half.

Their 55 through balls are more than anyone else in Ligue 1 - by a huge distance - while they rank at the bottom for long passes, again by some way.

In fact Strasbourg have played fewer long passes than any other team in Europe's top five leagues - 511. The team next on the list, Barcelona, have hit 598 long balls.

Chelsea, by contrast, have played 925 long passes in the league.

Strasbourg have been clinical too, ranking 14th for shots in Ligue 1 but seventh for goals.

In November club president Marc Keller - who denied Strasbourg are Chelsea's feeder club - told the BBC: "Liam is very innovative.

"He is playing top football and we are playing with a young team, so they have space to play.

"BlueCo knew him from England and when I met him he was clear about what he wanted to set up in Strasbourg - and what he said is exactly what is happening now."

Rosenior built his reputation in the EFL

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Image caption,

Liam Rosenior (right) played a huge part in Wayne Rooney's Derby County coaching staff

Rosenior, a right-back, had a solid but unspectacular career as a player - featuring in the top flight for Fulham, Reading, Hull and Brighton.

Roughly half his career was spent in the EFL and that's where he started his coaching career.

After a spell as Brighton's under-23s coach, he spent three years at Derby.

He was first-team coach under Phillip Cocu and then assistant boss to Wayne Rooney - before taking over as interim boss after Rooney's departure.

But he was more hands-on than the average assistant.

"There was an argument when Mel Morris sacked Phillip Cocu in November 2020, Rosenior should have been put in charge, not Rooney," said BBC football news reporter Simon Stone.

"Rooney had the profile of course, but it was Rosenior who put the sessions on at Derby and who guided the team during games.

"Rosenior replaced Rooney for a short time in 2022, after administration had led to relegation into League One.

"It was Rosenior who put Derby back together, helping to bring in 14 new players after the club had been left with only five under contract.

"History suggests the new ownership would have been better leaving Rosenior in charge, given they were seventh when he left and under his replacement, Paul Warne, they didn't even end with a play-off place."

He then spent almost two years as Hull manager - with observers again thinking he was harshly done by at the end.

The Tigers were one point above the relegation zone when he took over in November 2022 and led them to 15th.

The following season they finished three points off the play-off places, and Rosenior was sacked.

In 2024-25 while Rosenior was leading Strasbourg into Europe, Hull City avoided relegation from the Championship on goal difference.

'You need a puppet'

Many of Chelsea's managers under BlueCo have had big personalities and fallen out with the ownership.

They include Thomas Tuchel, who had won the Champions League, and Maresca, who lifted the Club World Cup in the summer.

Mauricio Pochettino left the club 18 months ago despite having appeared to stabilise the team in the latter stages of that season.

Would Chelsea be looking to the manager sitting seventh in the French league if they were not already part of their ownership group?

BBC pundit Nevin said: "Chelsea need someone who is going to buy into the methodology. Another way to say that is, you need a puppet. Someone who does exactly what they are told from above.

"Chelsea want success. But they want something else. They want someone who will do what they tell them to do. Those two things may not be compatible.

"Liam Rosenior sounds like a really good idea, but he's never done it at this level. To bring someone in who doesn't have that level of experience is a massive, massive chance to take."

Rosenior does have more managerial experience than his predecessor Maresca, who had a short spell at Parma in 2021 and one season as Leicester boss before taking over at Chelsea in 2024.

Former Manchester United striker Dion Dublin said "Rosenior is doing brilliant at Strasbourg".

But he added: "Chelsea had a manager who I don't think is going to be matched unless they spend a lot of money at it, to get a top-class manager in, and I don't think that is going to happen.

"It sounds like the owners want to control the manager and everything that goes on and what happens beyond the white line."