Everything that could have gone wrong did for Liam Rosenior. While his stint at Chelsea had started decently enough, there were always doubts in the long run. Even those early wins had come on the back of some brilliant individual performances and turning around games rather than any sort of great overall team performance.
Once the early spark faded, it got bad really quickly for Chelsea. Rosenior was sacked on the back of five consecutive defeats in the Premier League and seven against top flight teams across all competitions.
By the time he questioned his players’ desire following the defeat against Brighton, he must have had a good idea that his time at Chelsea had run out. And the official announcement came out earlier today.
Of course, sacking Rosenior is part of the solution. But Chelsea have a lot of other problems right now. A large part of them stems from how the club has been run over the last four years by BlueCo. The entire structure needs a shake-up and plenty of others need to be shown the exit door. Frequently changing managers and hoping one works out cannot be a strategy. And on the off chance that one does, like Enzo Maresca, they end up getting shown the exit door on the basis of disagreements behind the scenes.
Gary Neville slams Chelsea owners for how badly things went for Liam Rosenior
A lot of people thought from the very beginning that it was a bad idea to appoint Liam Rosenior. He was a decent coach in France but did not have the experience or proven track record to manage a club like Chelsea.
But once again, some decision-makers at Chelsea appeared to think that they were ahead of the game, although there has been no evidence to suggest so. Thus, this has turned out to be a ‘I told you so’ moment for many.
While speaking on Sky Sports, Gary Neville said:
“The owners have got it really badly wrong. I said at the time, they’ve got a group of talented players, young sporting directors in respect of the experience relating to Europe, you’ve got an ownership that’s young in respect that it’s only two or three years in. You need some experience somewhere in the club.
“These six-year, eight-year agreements, it’s almost laughable from the start. Whether it’s for a manager or a player. The owners don’t have a clue what they’re doing.
“I’ve made massive mistakes as an owner, but sometimes you’ve got to accept that. I’ve spoken publicly about the challenges we’ve had.
“But they’re all over the place. I just don’t get it, really. You deserve what you get in football and it’s a reflection on them, it’s not a reflection on a coach who, to be fair, probably shouldn’t have been advanced as soon as he was into the role.”
What should BlueCo do next?
The first thing that BlueCo need to recognise is that their strategy does not work in football. Not at top clubs at least, where the expectation is to win constantly. They need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel.
They came in at Chelsea and started trying to copy the Brighton model. Well, if the Seagulls finish mid-table for the next 10 years, it would be fine. Those are the level of expectations there and can be considered a success.
Chelsea cannot do that. They needed to replicate a winning model. One like Manchester City, where there is a never-ending desire to win. A club that signs Gianluigi Donnarumma when the opportunity presents itself, even though they signed James Trafford earlier in the window. That is what the Blues needed to be. Hopefully, that’s what they will try to be from here on forward. At this point, fans can only hope.
