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So. Farewell then, Liam Rosenior. After 106 days and a run of five consecutive league defeats without scoring a goal, Chelsea suits reactivated the revolving door marked Do One at Stamford Bridge and bundled him into oblivion. Rosenior lasted for 3.6% of his contract, which runs until 2032, by which time Chelsea’s coaching staff genuinely might be an army of analytical AI models in tracksuits. Rosenior’s reign began, if not with huge promise then at least a certain intrigue. Recruited from within the BlueCo matrix, the 41-year-old was flown to London for talks. An unassuming figure in spectacles and scarf, Rosenior resembled the “tech guy” in a boilerplate heist movie. Then he started talking. “The potential for this club, and for this group is limitless. And I won’t limit it,” Rosenior mused after watching a 2-1 defeat at Fulham, before adding he hoped his appointment would go down as “the best decision this club’s ever made”. Oof, this one actually aged faster than milk.
Things quickly got even stranger. There was that “respect the ball” performance art huddle with Paul Tierney, and then a tactical note passed on to the pitch when Chelsea were 8-2 down on aggregate against PSG. Social media disgraces sharpened their focus on “LinkedIn Liam”, with choice pearls dug up from his Strasbourg tenure, like: “In English, the word manage … if you split the two words, it’s man age – you’re ageing men.” Yes, this soundbite alone would be enough for the Daily to walk out on an office awayday. And yes, Rosenior was deeply naive to think this high-performance approach would attract anything other than ridicule. But to begin with, results on the pitch showed promise. When Chelsea swept through Villa in early-March, they moved to 48 points, three off the top four. But six weeks later, Rosenior’s side are still on 48 points.
