Liam Rosenior's Strasbourg beat PSG at the weekend.placeholder image
Liam Rosenior's Strasbourg beat PSG at the weekend. | AFP via Getty Images
Chelsea are heading into a new era under Liam Rosenior, but is he the right man for the job, or for the owners?
New Year is the time for a fresh start, for new beginnings and to put the past behind with Chelsea set to move onto a new era in the dugout.
Liam Rosenior has announced that he is the next Blues boss with the Strasbourg manager a natural fit for those pulling the strings at BlueCo. The former Hull City gaffer doesn’t quite have the same gravitas as a Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti or Antonio Conte, but it is the model that the club has moved towards and one that ultimately saw Enzo Maresca grow increasingly frustrated by operating with one hand tied behind his back – in his opinion, of course. Rosenior has already identified Marc Guehi as the player he wants as his first signing.
Liam Rosenior to take charge at Chelsea
Rosenior is highly rated as a coach, and being offered the Strasbourg job always looked like an audition given his growing reputation. According to Clinton Morrison though, speaking on BBC Radio Five Live, there is another reason why Rosenior is favourite to be appointed: “But I've said it many a times, you know what Chelsea want? And this is not being disrespectful. They want a yes man.
“They want someone to say, basically, these are the players we're signing. You do the coaching. We'll have a debrief after the game to speak about, not to tell you what team you should pick or what substitutions you should do, but basically. “ wouldn't be surprised if that was it actually”, replied journalist Luke Edwards.
“Yeah, maybe, but if the medical team, because you know recently when you've seen Cole Palmer get in the hump about coming off, that's not Maresco wanting to do the sub. It is the medical team basically saying he's in the red zone. And for me, if the player feels all right, and that's why Reece James don't play regular because they're managing his minutes.
“And basically, what can you do as a manager? Because they're the decisions that are being made at the moment. But I do think Liam Rosenior, the only thing is you look at him and you say, I think he's a brilliant manager.”
Is Liam Rosenior a ‘yes man”?
The BlueCo hierarchy have a similar model to a lot of European clubs albeit with a different approach to recruitment. It is fundamentally the same as clubs who work with sporting directors and a head coach though, where there is some involvement of the man in charge when it comes to what players are signed, but it is the recruitment team that does most of the decision making. Rosenior is a hands-on coach, rather than a manager, and he will be the one dictating what happens on the training ground on a daily basis.
Morrison is right, to an extent. Chelsea want a coach who will work with what they are given and who will be grateful for the opportunity that they have, rather than someone who will want more control or have aspirations of climbing the career ladder. Rosenior knew what he was doing when he took the Strasbourg job and the opportunities that might come with it and he could be about to get the chance to prove that deserves his shot at coaching a club looking to challenge for the Premier League title and that he isn’t just a ‘yes man’.
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