Once again, Chelsea find themselves looking for a new manager. It is the second time they have conducted a search in 2026, and Paul Scholes has described the situation as “crazy”.
Just six months after winning the Club World Cup, which came a few months after winning the Europa Conference League, Enzo Maresca found himself out of a job. That angered some of Chelsea’s players.
Then, 23 games into Liam Rosenior’s stint as manager, Chelsea’s owners realised their gamble had not paid off, and the former Strasbourg manager was axed. Now, Chelsea are in the market for a new gaffer.
Chelsea have spoken to Andoni Iraola’s representatives, and talks are planned for both Marco Silva and Xabi Alonso. It feels like Chelsea have to convince their shortlisted managers, not the other way round.
Xabi Alonso is the BEST candidate for the Chelsea job 👌
But it is a mess, and it is a mess of BlueCo’s own doing. They could have stuck with Maresca; they could have hired a more experienced manager to replace him. Paul Scholes has now had his say on Rosenior.
Paul Scholes slams BlueCo for hiring Liam Rosenior
There has been a large degree of sympathy for Rosenior since his sacking last Wednesday. While many do not feel he was equipped for the job, they feel it is not his fault, and he was thrown in at the deep end.
There is a feeling that Rosenior is a good coach and, in the future, may have the tools required to manage Chelsea. But for now, it came too soon. On The Overlap, Scholes described hiring Rosenior as “crazy”.
“Other than the owners, anybody else in and around football who thought Liam would have been the right person for Chelsea was just crazy for me. Once you make that decision, what’s Liam going to do?
“He’s not going to say no to a Chelsea job, is he? From where he was. But once the owners make that decision, then they have to factor in that there’s going to be times when it’s not going that well.”
Sunday will have been an angry watch for Liam Rosenior
Rosenior’s final game in charge against Brighton saw his Chelsea players down tools. They stopped trying and simply allowed Brighton to run through them. The playing squad had clearly lost respect for Rosenior.
Out of the managers we have been linked with, which one do you think might be able to get the very best out of Cole Palmer again?👀
It comes after reports that said the Chelsea squad had nicknamed Rosenior “a supply teacher”. Clearly, they didn’t think he’d be in the job long and with performances like Brighton, he was never going to last.
That is where the sympathy comes in. But it’s BlueCo’s mistake – hiring a more experienced manager will have commanded more respect, and then, Brighton never happens. Neither does losing five in a row.
Rosenior will have almost certainly watched a dogged, gritty Chelsea knock Leeds out of the FA Cup on Sunday. A side fighting for Calum McFarlane. He must have been asking, where was this during my reign?
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