Crisis at Chelsea FC: Now coach Rosenior is gone again

Vor a week, Behdad Eghbali personally addressed Chelsea FC supporters. However, the co-owner of the Blues, who is behind the billion-dollar machine Clearlake Capital, did this not in London, but thousands of kilometers away – at the CAA World Congress of Sports in Los Angeles. There he gave a rare insight into his thoughts: “We’ll take care of it and stick with it!” That probably sounded more like a threat to many fans; they want to get rid of Eghbali and his partners, who replaced Roman Abramowitsch in May 2022, as quickly as possible.

First, however, the head coach left again – for the sixth time under BlueCo, as Eghbali’s club holding company is called. On Wednesday evening, Chelsea announced the separation from Liam Rosenior, 41. The management had brought the Englishman from partner club Racing Strasbourg at the beginning of the year and given him an optimistic contract until 2032. The reason given was that the results and performance had fallen “below the required standards”. This marked a historic series of defeats for the club, the last of which was seen at Chelsea FC in 1912, the year of Titanic-Downfall, had given: five league defeats without a single goal of their own, most recently they ran aground in the 0:3 in Brighton, before that they had failed with 2:8 in the overall score against PSG in the Champions League round of 16.

Chelsea have fallen to eighth place in the Premier League – outside the European Cup ranks. With four game days to go, the gap to the Champions League places is a barely catchable seven points with more games played. The only face-saving way out would be the FA Cup, which is rewarded with participation in the Europa League: Chelsea will face Leeds in the semi-finals on Sunday. The team will be looked after by Calum McFarlane until the end of the season, who stepped in briefly after Rosenior’s predecessor Enzo Maresca was fired. The club announced in writing that there would be a “process of self-reflection” before the position was filled.

“I’m injured, I feel numb,” said Rosenior resignedly after the performance in Brighton, after he had always bravely defended his players. The performance seemed like a boycott against the coach. Even Eghbali became aware of this in the stadium, who had emphasized until the end that he would stick with the coach. Statements were made public several times. The indiscretions reached their climax when Marc Cucurella’s hairdresser announced via social media before the Brighton game that Cole Palmer and João Pedro would be out.

Chelsea coach Rosenior was mocked in England as “LinkedIn Liam”.

In contrast to the casual Maresca, who won the 2025 Conference League and Club World Cup with the team and was good with the players, Rosenior fit in with the existing squad no more than a philosopher fits into reality TV. In England he was mocked as “LinkedIn Liam” – because of his slick language. When his team recently formed a circle around the match ball before kick-off, which bizarrely also included the referee, Rosenior cryptically explained that they wanted to “pay respect to the ball”.

The leading players Enzo Fernández and Cucurella made their dissatisfaction with the coach and the club’s management public in March. Cucurella criticized The Athletic bluntly the change of coach and the composition of the squad; Fernández even flirted with leaving for Madrid after this season – for which he has since been suspended. The team, which consists of many talents, had hoped that the club would build on the successful squad from the previous season and specifically strengthen it with experienced professionals in order to compete for titles in the Premier League and Champions League.

Instead, the club management torpedoed this plan by bringing in and selling almost a dozen players again in the summer. While under Abramovich everything was once subordinated to titles, at BlueCo it is all about business. The new owners want to retain young players for the long term in order to participate in possible increases in market value. So far, however, the strategy has not worked: despite sales of half a billion euros, there was a loss of more than a quarter of a billion – a record loss in English football.

In terms of sport, the constant transfers mean that the team does not develop. “We lack experience,” Cucurella told his superiors, adding that players can feel “discouraged.” Such clear statements are intended to create pressure. The owners’ calculations sometimes work out – after all, Chelsea earned around 900 million euros from transfers under BlueCo, more than any other club during this period. But the ongoing lack of success, such as missing out on the premier class, is unlikely to be able to be compensated for by the current owners either.

Behdad Eghbali responded to the objections from the team. During his appearance in Los Angeles, he admitted that he would bring in more “seasoned players” in the future. This did not reassure Chelsea FC fans.