Chelsea's farewell to the coach has become quite familiar in recent years, but this time may have a different meaning.
Enzo Maresca signed a long-term contract in 2024 and closed his first season at Stamford Bridge with two titles, including the FIFA Club World Cup in the summer of 2025. However, due to reasons that have not yet been completely clarified, Maresca left Chelsea on New Year's Day, leading to a search for a successor activated in the middle of the season.
Chelsea's 2025-2026 season in general has not gone on track as expected. They have reached the League Cup semi-finals and still have a positive opportunity to surpass the UEFA Champions League group stage, but being only fifth in the Premier League and being 15 points behind Arsenal is clearly not an ideal scenario.
Maresca left with a win rate of nearly 60% in all competitions, winning 55 in 92 coaching matches (16 draws, 21 losses). However, his 49% win rate in the Premier League is only slightly higher than his predecessor Mauricio Pochettino (47%) and similar to Frank Lampard's early days.
The question is who is capable and meets the expectations commensurate with The Blues' large investment since Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly took over. According to British media, the prominent target at this time is Liam Rosenior, coach of Strasbourg.
If you hear that Chelsea is considering appointing a captain who was sacked by Hull City in the summer of 2024, many people will immediately feel that something is wrong. However, the story is not only about career history, but also about the context.
Strasbourg is located in the ecosystem of the BlueCo group, helping Chelsea have observation data and a certain level of "familiarity" with Rosenior's ability.
Rosenior is the son of former Brentford and Torquay United coach Leroy Rosenior. In his football career, he played 141 Premier League matches for Fulham, Hull, Reading and Brighton. After retiring and working in the coaching staff at Brighton, Rosenior took on the role of commentator, creating an impression thanks to his meticulous but coherent and understandable approach.
However, Rosenior's focus is always coaching work. In an interview with the Premier League website in May 2025, he recounted: "When I was 10 years old, I remember sitting around my dad's dining table on Friday night to watch the set pieces for the next match together. That's where it all started.
Rosenior started coaching from the role of assistant to U23 Brighton, then worked at Derby County under Phillip Cocu and Wayne Rooney. He used to hold the interim first-team position when Rooney resigned (June 2022) before leaving the club because Derby appointed Paul Warne.
In November 2022, he took his first head coach job at Hull City, helping the team from the bottom of the Championship group finish the 2022-2023 season in 15th place, with 38 points earned after his takeover and outstanding stability (14/28 draws, 6 losses).
In the 2023-2024 season, Hull came 7th and missed a close play-off spot but still sacked Rosenior. Rosenior quickly moved to Ligue 1 to lead Strasbourg under the BlueCo system, bringing the team from 13th to 7th place in the first season (winning 16, drawing 9, losing 9) to win a ticket to the UEFA Conference League.
Until the recent winter break, Strasbourg continued to rank seventh, and also led the Conference League standings with only 2 points dropped after 6 matches.
