Liam Rosenior to Chelsea 💭

Liam Rosenior to Chelsea 💭

Liam Rosenior was given a platform to start as an Academy Coach at Brighton, where Hope Powell and Chris Hughton also worked.

It’s important to make the distinction between understanding the challenges for BAME candidates to access opportunities, and clubs who’d be keen to entertain appointments to make a point (on behalf of everyone?) then revert back.

Brighton gave Rosenior responsibilities to develop his craft as assistant coach with the U23s.

Lots of former pros don’t have the humility to learn, and want the U21s Lead straight away as a sandbox “second first team”. Club inside the club.

Liam Rosenior has a stellar reputation in coaching, especially since his stint with Wayne Rooney at Derby County who finished mid-table but point deduction meant they went down eventually.

Building a culture and atmosphere in the turmoil of takeovers, a thinbare squad and relying on players under contract including academy players.

He held the roles of first team coach under Philip Cocu, then assistant manager to Rooney and had a 12-game caretaker spell.

Coaching goes well beyond namedropping your former coaches, career achievements.
That gives you about one week before players judge you like everyone else. Two players in particular : Louie Sibley and Malcom Ebiowei.

One is an Academy player who stayed on : capable of highs, an inconsistent player.

Malcom Ebiowei is a well known name in the emerging talent sphere, who was on Chelsea, Arsenal, Rangers’ books. Then Palace. “Tactics” isn’t the lifeline but powerful, relatable and engaging mentorship that platformed the expression of his talent for a bit. You can’t manufacture, or PowerPoint this.

Somewhat found a consistent form whilst Rosenior was a first team coach / assistant there.

🐯At Hull City, I remember Rosenior taking over when the team was close to relegation after it got promoted from League One. He coached half a season and avoided relegation in 15th

Hull missed out on the playoffs for 3pts in 2023-24, they had a mid table wage bill / budget so that sounded to me like a good evidence of coaching / managerial ability to overperform

Maresca had an Europa League wagebill, 100+ million, bottled a 15pts lead in half a season and failed to win against Rosenior’s side in the home/away fixtures.

🐯I kept a distant eye mostly to follow Jaden Philogene’s exploits,

This is a positive for me. A player I know is good, platformed to do excellently without anyone trying to take credit off him, nor putting mediocre “system” players in the way.

At Strasbourg, there’s several phases :

Initially, Rosenior came with the egregious BlueCo playbook booklet – invert everyone, play a suicidal brand of football that was exposed in pre season. Rosenior stuck to the playbook for about 6 months, where Strasbourg established records :

First Strasbourg team to fail to win their first 7 away games, 27 conceded, 13pts in 13 games, 12pts bottled from winning positions, full pitch man marking.

Rosenior was about to be sacked before the winter break when chairman Keller still had decision making input - he doesn't. He has an ambassadorial role.

Rosenior saved his job, transitioning to 541 sit deep and smash the ball over the top for Emegha, and won 0-3 at Le Havre.

Strasbourg went on a winning run after January that got them qualified for Europe – an achievement, but no different from Strasbourg winning the League Cup 2019 or qualifying for Europe under Julien Stéphan finishing 6th in 2022.

Oh surprise, what happens when you sit deep and play on the break.

This season, Rosenior was handed more and more lottery tickets. Whilst the Conference League has been acting as a weekly dopamine kick : it’s important to benchmark it’s irrelevance.

Martial Godo, a talented London secondary circuit talent (no disrespect), from the same EPG / Shields circuit than everyone else.
who scored 14 in 30 games for Fulham U21s, and merely played 6 Premier League games. Is a fine player in his own right, but being the best player in the Conference League ; tells you what you need to know. Also tells you everything you need to know about Paez and Enciso who can’t impact games there.

Just like Liam Delap scoring 6 goals in 30 games for Hull, you can’t turn a donkey in a racehorse even with “mentoring” “coaching” “tactics”.

The brand of football is still very much naïve and experimental ; they’re giving away a ton of chances with turnovers, goalkeeper in the back four and whatnot.

Now; important considerations. Playing a naïve brand of football is every coach / team’s inalienable right. It becomes parasitic when it becomes an excuse to churn out seasoned professionals who’d call it out because “they don’t fit”. Don’t worry, players have seen bad and shit coaches, and played Academy fixtures with egregious tactics and talent differential.

BlueCo asking their business units to play suicide football is stupid, it doesn’t work like that and even their benchmark Manchester City saw ESTAC Troyes get relegated after the Melbourne City “multi club model” coach won 2 games in 45 (yes), they pulled the plug on Mumbai.

If anything, Tony Bloom’s Saint Gilloise won the Belgian League and Hearts might be in a position to go away with it. What they do is platform talent, not reshape a collective choregraphy.

I believe Rosenior is smart, he’s also politically good at operating. He’s delivering the brand of football they want, but the big difference is that so far there’s no evidence of him being a liar to force bad players over more performing ones, under pressure from hierarchy or agents.

Standards is the key point : Rosenior is a straightforward BAME South London former pro, he will have a solid foundation in terms of principles to work. Humility, honesty and sticking true to what he believes in.

I’m not talking inverted fullbacks. I’m saying, if you’re not delivering, you’ll be dug out. If you shit on the team like Emegha did “the team lost because I wasn’t playing”, then the *captain* will be sent in the stands for one game. When Enzo was a racist, he was given the armband with Enzo Maresca’s blessing. Nkunku didn’t recover from that outrage.

Captain was decided by BlueCo, just like Ajax captained Hato to extract more money – captains aren’t really relevant, players are all startup CEO nowadays. It’s like who has a microphone in a seminar, but nobody’s listening.

From a result standpoint, obviously Strasbourg (BlueCo) find out the hard way that surprise teams in Ligue 1 only exist as long as they find success sitting deep and playing on the counter. Lille 2000s, Nancy 2006, Auxerre 2011, Montpellier 2012, St Etienne 2019 Lens 2020s.

Teams structurally won’t expose themselves and everyone plays on the break. Second seasons are notoriously hard.

Strasbourg finished top 6 in 2022, and Stephan lost his job the next season when teams gave them the ball. Same happens this season. Ligue 1 teams adapted, and give the ball whilst not giving up space vs Strasbourg

Strasbourg under Rosenior in 25-26 failed to win against a top 10 team beside Lille, are on 1 win in 8, scored 6 goals and only got some air by qualifying against Demba Ba’s Dunkerque in a French Cup. They’re 7th outside European Places.

The more interesting thing in my opinion is how he’s been calling out standards.

I posted a summary of the December quotes, Rosenior is crashing out on the players in a way that’s hard to question from the inside or outside.

Modern football is full of inference, jumped scouts in bed with agents who whisper to play X over Y. But there’s a line when the player isn’t delivering.

As in : player has to fix up before being considered for contention.

Kendry Paez goes to Disneyland two days before games, so Rosenior said he was sick of giving excuses and has to perform better. Same applies for Enciso and many more.

I’m French so my situational / cultural opinion is worth more as a matter of fact. France has a complex relation to competence from overseas. No matter who you are, you’ll be questioned from an administrative (Tuchel had to do a 3 day crash course to update his diplomas) or personality standpoint. Ancelotti gave up, Emery was hounded out.

France as a collective is absolutely brutal with their own glories (Laurent Blanc), but can also fall in love with Bielsa (Marseille).

And it’s not just “you lost a game, you don’t know what you’re doing” but brutal character assassination empowered by the total absence of press libel laws, and writer’s emphasis on double entendre. They’ll attack you on angles that other countries legally don’t allow.
The elephant in the room : Rosenior is from Sierra-Leone descent. There hasn’t been any instance (that I am aware of) of racism, or racist undertones. And then again, France has a grey area or window trivialising the boundary between “banter” and “offensive” that’s extremely wide.

Rosenior hasn’t got to “do more” to avoid it. In any case, whether he was out of his depth (like Patrick Kisnorbo was at Man City’s partner club was) or highly competent (Vieira finishing in European places for Nice with 38 goals scored) – there’s no place for it.

But I also believe that Rosenior’s demeanour, honesty, natural way of speaking facts and not gaslight the fans based on what they see is what made people stand their positions and not turn against him. The majority acknowledge he’s an employee who does his job honestly and fairly.

Rosenior’s stance on the “BlueCo Out” protests is the one thing I believe the risk/benefit balance was a bit eroded at his detriment, as he called out the fans for their silence in the first half an hour. But it stayed as the stage of “that young team needs your support” , no “shill for my employers” (Maresca said “the squad is very talented” in his first interview, and made it worse on every metric)

I don’t think we realise how egregious it is that Maresca stayed in a job telling the fans they need to understand it’s not playstation. Any fee-for-entry event and you get sacked, cancelled and de-scheduled because the one thing you do not do, is shit talk the audience who pays because then the whole card castle crumbles.

How does Rosenior work at Chelsea then?
There’s a truth in football, that’s out of reach for casuals. As a coach, you’re x-rayed the moment you walk into a room. Your playing career and achievements are relevant for a “wow factor” inside twenty minutes in the first team talk, and training session. Then everyone’s on their own.

If you’re a shit coach, players will make a grown up fucking cry at the end of the session.

I like Rosenior’s straightforward honesty that stems from where he comes from, and moulding his ability to navigate as assistant, media personality in two different countries. This is a commendable experience, and he navigated every step avoiding easy and structural bear traps.

I’ve coached at National level, I’ve done team talks, I’ve heard opposition coaches (often former pros) and the difference between them between 4 walls and in the dugout.
It’s a matter of getting down to the fundamentals of effort, and setting something at reach that players must keep grasping or put into action. I find the clip convincing, and the fact that he’s a native English speaker will help his legitimacy.

Maresca got away with way too much claiming it was the language barrier. I believe you have to speak to a level that don’t require people to guess. But language barrier isn’t the reason you’re saying “how many goals Jackson has missed” to defend a goalkeeper asked to do dumb shit, and was benched the week after. Or saying “goalkeeper will be replaced if he kicks the ball long” – what can Sanchez think now he’s got two assists to his name. That’s just being a shit person in a position of unquestionable authority.

There’s a twitter account @TacTacFoot followed by key stakeholders such as Chelsea’s sporting directors, posting scoreboard-less match footage, shit talking the fans begging for retweets.
Maresca spent his time begging for better players, and thought he could keep a poker face whilst coaching these players. That happens everywhere, and players see through it if not because there’s always a pair of ears to report back to them.

Maresca’s words carried no meaning, his quotes on Sterling “not his type” or Chalobah “we have Disasi” and his silence around the bomb squad, snark smug comments were a terrible publicity inside and outside the club. It was allowed to run because that’s building the wall of plausible denial to say “oh well, we’ll be forced to consider non top talent then”.

⚽️From a football standpoint ; whilst I don’t believe the fantasy football “BlueCo” want to implement can work, that’s their decision. I think it’s silly and not conductive to getting good results. I believe Rosenior isn’t stupid and will make something different work, with more direct play, sitting deeper, possibly a back three.
This is the costume. A scumbag in a tailored suit is still a scumbag.

If the team plays any brand of football, but I believe the sporting merit is respected, then I’ll watch that as an informed football watcher. Not knowing Marc Guiu gets 30’ vs Manchester City on opening day and never makes the matchday squad after, I know where it comes from.

I’m not beating around the bush. I will wait at the corner for Rosenior when he’ll be asked about Sterling and Disasi. He will lose points if he says “it’s a club decision” and he will obviously lose everything if he bullshits his way through “they don’t fit” or if they don’t find their way back in after. The situation with Enzo Fernandez will be tricky too, as I imagine he might be asked if a guy who apologised for “highly offensive language” can still be the vice captain. He’d win points removing the armband to EnzoF

Maresca is an imbecile choking on his hubris who thought the club would back him for renting his name against “Sterling isn’t my type of winger”. They’re now pinning the cold treatment of the bomb squad on him. He’s an idiot.

Sterling isn’t Martin Luther King but he’s extraordinarily significant in the past 20 years in English football to break barriers.
Rosenior might find himself with one of the biggest stances to take, based on a decision he can’t fully make – if a company decides to constructively piss off a worker to force him to quit, what do you do.

Back to the BAME point. The significance of a South London football man is culturally relevant. I’m personally looking at standards and competence. I hate discrimination, but I also hate anti-discrimination (also called “token …” )

There’s a section of the following (not the “fans”) who still hold or voice problematic views, the online sphere was toxic against Kanté, Willian, Rudiger, Tammy Abraham, Chalobah for a reason that has nothing to do with the football.

We need to call out any hint of offensive discourse.
And this too : if Rosenior ends up doing badly on performances he can control, I will call out if BlueCo use the BAME card as a token to say “you’re only saying that because he’s BAME” because they only care about their public perception.

BlueCo don't care about BAME access to opportunities;

Otherwise Hassain Sulaiman, two decades in the Chelsea building would have got the U21 job this summer (and interim job) instead of Joe Shields’ mate Callum McFarlane, literally in the building for two weeks as “U18 assistant”.

And would have sacked Enzo Fernandez for being a racist, like he would’ve been in any other workplace.

Liam Rosenior doesn’t have the leeway some other coaches will get away with, because they’re Caucasian from the “Old Europe”, picked up cones in a glorified apprenticeship.
Graham Potter turned up without S&C coach, and the team fell apart. Maresca said “Sterling isn’t my type of winger”. I hate whataboutism, but what about Rosenior turning up saying “Palmer isn’t my type of winger”. What would be the reaction.

Maresca had to go, he fed his bulimic thirst for taking credit thinking he’s special by selfish decisions, masqueraded behind a smokescreen of lies, arrogance, thinking he’d get away with saying yes and doing the opposite, letting players do what works. The optics of the way Maresca handled himself was a damage at Chelsea, and in football in general.

More than the team playing a chaotic brand of football with a shit ton of avoidable muscular injuries, resulting in a drop in performance that would’ve eventually got him sacked. He accelerated his own demise.

The Hull City pipeline is intriguing. Loz Stew was an analyst there, Rosenior was a coach there, Liam Delap played there. Burstow was sold there. A player that made me smell something fishy is Eliot Matazo, that kept being glazed by digital influencers and forced into lineups between Fofana and Tchouaméni, and who has been canned by Monaco at… Hull City.

Rosenior is managed by Wasserman, like Maresca (then), Graham Potter and many more :

TL;DR :

⚽️Rosenior’s experience talks to me, there’s difficult contexts where he overperformed ; and enough individual examples of mentoring complex mavericks.
Rosenior exported his talents in France and steered clear of sewer criticism by being straightforward, humble, hardworking and relatable to everyone.

⚽️He’s a good football coach, asked to deliver a fantasy playbook. He intelligently adapted, without compromising on basic standards from a position of independent authority (that Maresca never had in the first place)

⚽️The Chelsea environment is complex but he deserves a chance at the job as long as he sticks to his standards of driving the performance culture forward (he can control) based on what he’s got (he can’t control). I highly doubt he’ll become a corporate scumbag because he will have a long career in football, even if that job comes early (and might never come around).

⚽️Hopefully, the club acts swiftly when the inevitable toxic offensive reactions occur. Racism against players is bad, racism against coaches is bad too – somewhat less frequent.

⚽️Rosenior doesn’t have a “I had coffee with Pep and played 20’ with Zidane (check)” magic card that opens every door in football even being a visible failure at Parma and Leicester.

⚽️He will have to work hard and stay true to his relatable approach and standards, he’s a coach I followed before BlueCo and will hopefully continue to do so.

That's not me shilling for BlueCo fwiw.

Just taking a break and enjoying the opportunity to follow some actual coaching, with a respectable figure in the dugout.

Rather than a slimy, gaslighting bullshitter selling snake oil until the fig leaf of winning the Trump Cup couldn't salvage everything else.