Liam Rosenior has been the subject of conversation thanks to some of his eyebrow-raising comments since taking the helm at Chelsea
Connor O'Neill Senior Sports Content Creator, Kasra Moradi Senior Sports Journalist and Amos Murhpy
15:13, 23 Mar 2026
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MARCH 21: Chelsea coach Liam Rosenior reacts at full-time following the Premier League match between Everton and Chelsea at Goodison Park on March 21, 2026 in Liverpool, England.
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Liam Rosenior has been branded 'unrecognisable'(Image: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista, Getty Images)
Liam Rosenior has been dubbed 'unrecognisable' by a former team-mate, who took aim at the Chelsea head coach's 'drivel'.
Rosenior's troubles have shown no signs of letting up recently, having suffered four defeats on the bounce. In the Champions League, the Blues were knocked out by reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain after 5-2 and 3-0 defeats across the two respective last-16 legs.
Any hopes of a miraculous comeback at Stamford Bridge were dashed early on last week as the home side found themselves trailing 2-0 within the opening 15 minutes. Rosenior hasn’t fared much better in the Premier League, suffering successive losses to Newcastle and Everton, which has struck a major blow to their hopes of securing a top-four finish this season.
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Ahead of the international break, rumours have circulated that failing to qualify for next season's Champions League could lead Chelsea to abandon the Rosenior project and look for yet another new manager. That follows some bizarre comments made by Rosenior in recent months, including his 'ageing men' speech, an angry rant directed at Arsenal personnel during a pre-match warm-up and claiming his players huddled around the centre circle in order to "respect the ball".
The 41-year-old’s former Hull City team-mate Kevin Kilbane believes he has adopted a different character entirely since stepping into the managerial role. Speaking to Off The Ball, he said: "I played with Liam at Hull and I got on well with Liam, he used to tell some great stories of Roy Keane when he was his manager at Ipswich.
"And you see the way he is now, to me, he's unrecognisable to the player and the person I knew. It's like he's swallowed a psychologist's manual or a sporting mentor's memoir. Everything he says is to me is waffle, drivel, nothing.
"It's like he tries to write as many quotes down as possible and tries to get them into a pre-match talk or post-match whenever addressing the media. If I'm a player being asked to do that huddle, I wouldn't feel comfortable if I was a Chelsea player."
Liam Rosenior during Chelsea's defeat to PSG
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Liam Rosenior's side are experiencing poor form(Image: (Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images))
Chelsea performed their controversial pre-match huddle in the centre circle before the second leg against PSG but didn't surround the ball to 'respect' it, as they had done the previous weekend against Newcastle. The two-time European champions were back in action against Everton on Saturday, where they suffered a 3-0 loss away from home.
Speaking after the Everton drubbing, Rosenior said: "The most disappointing evening so far in terms of the things we've spoken about, not gifting goals away, making sure we're in the game, getting control of the game. It wasn't there and it turned into a really, really difficult evening where the result and performance was nowhere near what we expected or wanted.
"I'm learning about this club. It's a massive club. There's been a lot of noise, a lot of negative noise, rightfully so, our performances in the last week.
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"We've had 10 games in the league together as a group. We've got 17 points. I think we're fourth in my time. So we have to forget the noise. We have to keep our confidence and our composure."