Chelsea manager, back at Hull in the Cup on Friday, made a strong impression on Humberside, as ex-colleagues explain
“T
hat’s the best message I’ve received,” Liam Rosenior wrote, accompanied by laughing emojis, in response to one of the many congratulation posts sent after his surprise appointment as the Chelsea head coach. His former Hull teammate James Chester had wickedly told him: “After my time with you at Derby I never thought you’d have been Chelsea manager,” alongside a photograph of Chester in the pub with his fellow former Tigers Robbie Brady and Paul McShane, raising a glass to Rosenior.
It was a sign of the close bonds Rosenior built at Hull as a player and head coach. He returns as a Champions League head coach on Friday in the FA Cup, looking to avoid an upset against a team aiming to make it a more regular rivalry. Rosenior spent seven seasons on Humberside, five as a player and two in the dugout, which were crucial for his development.
“He really loved the tactical side of football and how teams played in possession and how different teams played different formations,” Chester says, thinking back to Rosenior as a Hull player. “Generally on a bus to an away game we’d be messing around playing Mario Kart and Liam would be sat watching games from Barcelona, Real Madrid and other big clubs on his laptop and studying how they played and things like that. That’s the first time I’d ever come across that.”
