Not three weeks after being named the Premier League Manager of the Month for November, Enzo Maresca became the latest victim of the ever-ruthless Chelsea management, leaving the West London side on New Year’s Day.
After joining in July 2024, Maresca enjoyed a relatively successful year or so, winning the UEFA Conference League and the Club World Cup in his first season. Despite this, the Italian’s relationship with the club turned sour and his time with the Blues ended abruptly on 1 January.
Maresca’s exit is a real shame for Chelsea, who have shown glimpses of consistent results more recently. This is undoubtedly a team made up of some serious talent, but one which has struggled to justify the eye-watering amount of money spent to put it together. Since Todd Boehly and BlueCo bought the club in 2022, Chelsea have continuously emptied their pockets, offering long-term contracts to players with huge price tags.
After all the money spent, many players have been injured, sold, or ostracised entirely — Raheem Sterling, for example, who cost the club nearly £50 million, now finds himself exiled from first team facilities as he runs down a long and rather lucrative deal. Then again, what more do you expect from a club whose recruitment strategy seems to be “which starry-eyed manager should we blame things on this year?”
Nearly five years on from Champions League glory in 2021, the Chelsea of today are unrecognisable — things just haven’t been the same since Thomas Tuchel was in the dugout.
Next to drink from the poisoned chalice that is Chelsea FC is Liam Rosenior, who has coached French side RC Strasbourg for the last 18 months. Having first served as Derby County interim, Rosenior went on to coach Hull City before getting the sack in May 2024. After joining Racing that summer, he led the club to a seventh-place finish in Ligue 1, qualifying for the Conference League. With something of an unremarkable managerial career so far, what explains the recent move to Chelsea?
Boehly and BlueCo acquired Racing Strasbourg in 2023, rendering the French team a powerless subordinate to Chelsea’s footballing interests. This is why left-back Ben Chilwell could so easily be pawned off to Racing after failing to impress Maresca. If this did not highlight the issues of multi-club ownership, Rosenior’s appointment has certainly turned heads.
Fédération Supporters RCS reiterated its disdain for the club’s “subservience” to Chelsea in a statement released on 6 January, the same day Rosenior confirmed his departure. His justification that “some clubs you just can’t turn down” doesn’t exactly carry the same weight given he already answered to Chelsea bosses. What was the alternative, lose his job?
That said, Rosenior’s arrival brings some much-needed optimism to this Chelsea side, who won only two of their eight December fixtures. The first few games under his leadership have had mixed results — a dominant second half saw Chelsea put five goals past Charlton in the FA Cup third round, but Rosenior was promptly handed his first loss by Arsenal in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semis. Still with a second leg to play, Chelsea will hope to overturn the 3-2 deficit to withhold their rivals from some long-awaited silverware.
Time will tell just how much of an impact Rosenior can have on this Chelsea side, but under the current setup, time is something rarely afforded to even the most seasoned of coaches — he will need to impress in the second half of this season, lest he become yet another manager through the Stamford Bridge revolving door.
“Chelsea Football Club, Stamford Bridge (Ank kumar) 22” by Ank kumar is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.