Sacking a manager is never an easy decision for a club. It almost always comes with a reset to how the team plays. And as we can see right now, Chelsea are struggling to make that adjustment. The club sacked Enzo Maresca in the middle of the season and brought in Liam Rosenior. The Englishman talked the talk when he arrived. But he has failed to back that up with consistent results.
The 7-0 win over Port Vale might have taken the spotlight off of Chelsea. But the fact is that they came into that game on a four-game losing streak. When they take on Manchester City this weekend, they are heavy underdogs. And that has been a constant theme for years now.
What Chelsea have not done at any point during the BlueCo era is hire proven winners as managers. We all know how badly Graham Potter struggled under the pressure. Mauricio Pochettino was phenomenal for Tottenham Hotspur, but not a winner. Maresca exceeded all expectations but only lasted 18 months in the job. And Rosenior seems a bit out of his depth.
I would love to be proven wrong. Let’s hope Chelsea can go on a run from here on and finish in the Champions League qualification spots. Winning the FA Cup would be the cherry on top. If that happens, a lot of Rosenior doubters will be proven wrong. Unfortunately, it is hard to see it happening from what we have seen in these last three months.
Chelsea have never convinced under Liam Rosenior
Chelsea did pick up some good results in the early months of Rosenior as manager. But even then, it was dependent on moments of individual brilliance rather than great team performances.
To be honest, at no point have Chelsea been convincing with Rosenior as manager. Every big game, they have lost. And the Englishman has not shown much to suggest that he is capable of handling this job in the long run.
Of course, Chelsea did hand him a six-and-a-half-year deal when he arrived from Strasbourg. One would hope that there are some break clauses in it. If the club fail to qualify for the Champions League, there is no way they should continue with him as manager beyond this season.
That would come with the risk of wasting another summer transfer window with a manager who has not shown much to suggest he has the quality to succeed at Chelsea. The club would be much better placed to make a decision as early as possible rather than letting this drag on.
There has been all this talk about the need for experience and proven quality when it comes to the players. The same thing rings true for managers as well. And unfortunately, Rosenior is falling short of expectations.
Chelsea’s next appointment has to be a proven winner
Chelsea have been linked with two managers in recent weeks. One of them is Cesc Fabregas, a proven winner as a player at both club and international level, who is showing a lot of promise as a manager.
The second is Xabi Alonso, belonging to the same generation of Spanish football as Fabregas. As an added bonus, he has shown his qualities as a manager as well.
It would be safe to say that he was better than anybody could have predicted at Bayer Leverkusen. He won the Bundesliga title without losing a single match. And even at Real Madrid, he had a win percentage of more than 73% when he was shown the exit door.
Alonso would be a great appointment for Chelsea. Unfortunately, he has been heavily linked with both Liverpool and Manchester City as well.
The old Chelsea would be all over a manager like Alonso. Will they make a push for him in the BlueCo era? It remains to be seen.
