Right now, BlueCo should be trying to find the right long-term manager for Chelsea. They must have thought that Liam Rosenior was the man for the job. Otherwise, there was no real point in handing him a six-and-a-half-year contract when he joined from Strasbourg in January. That was a statement more than anything else.
Well, Rosenior saw out around three and a half months of that contract before he was sacked. Now, it remains to be seen what the future will hold for the Chelsea managerial position as they are back to square one.
Xabi Alonso, Andoni Iraola and Marco Silva are the three names that have been linked with the job most consistently. Of course, there could be some outside candidates as well, like Filipe Luis and Cesc Fabregas.
A lot of managers have had problems working under the BlueCo model so far though. Let’s not forget that Enzo Maresca walked away from the job. Judging from Mauricio Pochettino’s recent comments, it was his decision to leave after just one season as well.
Gary O’Neil calls for improvement at Strasbourg
When BlueCo swooped in to take Rosenior from Strasbourg to Chelsea, he was replaced by Gary O’Neil. And he already seems to be asking for improvements across several departments at the club.
According to L’Equipe, O’Neil said:
You really have to work hard this summer to be better. We have already had meetings on recruitment. I need two top strikers. The owners want to give me the means to perform next season. But it is also necessary to improve the club culture, the quality of the players, the depth of the workforce. We missed each other in January, on the transfer window. We weakened instead of improving the group.
So, it sounds like there are a lot of areas where Strasbourg need improving. It remains to be seen if they can achieve that over the course of this summer.
Strasbourg have felt like a feeder club for Chelsea
To be honest, at times, Strasbourg has felt like an afterthought. Chelsea have constantly gone in and signed some of their best players. In January, the Blues came in and got their manager as well. And it would not be any kind of surprise if they brought more in the future with Valentin Barco already being linked with a move to Stamford Bridge.
It is easy to see why their fans are not happy, even though, as a club, they have been more successful since BlueCo came in. This was their first European campaign in two decades and they made it to the semi-finals of the Conference League.
But there were jeers and boos aimed at the team after they lost in the semi-finals to Rayo Vallecano. A lot of them were aimed at club captain, Emmanuel Emegha, who is also set to join Chelsea this summer.
