Calum McFarlane must be struggling to believe his luck right now.
The 37 year old was complete unknown, even within football circles, 6 months ago. Now he’s taken charge of two Chelsea game as caretaker coach, won an unlikely away point off Pep Guardiola, and has now been permanently bumped up from Under 21s manager to first team assistant.
Chelsea caretaker coach bumped up to first team role after impressing in interim spell
Nizaar Kinsella's Tweet about Liam Rosenior's request for Calum McFarlane.
Nizaar Kinsella’s Tweet about Liam Rosenior’s request for Calum McFarlane.
Kieran Gill of the Daily Mail had the story first, writing that new manager Liam Rosenior (who was in the stands at Fulham on Wednesday night to watch McFarlane’s second game in his interim role) has been impressed with the young coach’s impact, and specifically requested for him to be added to his incoming staff on the first team.
Rosenior will also bring 3 staff who worked with him at Strasbourg. After the Fulham game, McFarlane had said “‘As I’m aware, we’re back with the Under 21s tomorrow.”
Well, things have changed for Calum, who is now going to be a familiar face on the Chelsea bench it seems.
There’s a bit of an underlying thread to this too – McFarlane has previous links with Joe Shields, one of Chelsea’s five sporting directors. Shields is involved with London-based “Kinet!c” academy, which McFarlane has also worked at. There’s a growing sense that there’s a real “jobs for the boys” situation developing here.
In other news…
Rosenior took his first training session at Cobham today and the Chelsea website revealed a little bit about how how things went.
Jorrel Hato is a player who didn’t really get a look in under Enzo Maresca, and will clearly be hoping he can benefit from the change of manager right away. He had some thoughts about Rosenior’s arrival in an interview on the club’s website.
More Stories about Calum McFarlane
Liam Rosenior takes his first Chelsea training session, with Dario Essugo present.
Calum McFarlane speaks to the media after Chelsea defeat.
Calum McFarlane on the touchline for Chelsea.