Liam Rosenior has left Chelsea after Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at Brighton. The head coach has gone three and a half months into a six-and-a-half-year contract after taking charge of only 23 matches.
The loss at Brighton was Chelsea’s fifth in a row in the Premier League without scoring and extinguished any realistic hope of finishing in the top five spots that would guarantee Champions League qualification.
Calum McFarlane, who was in caretaker charge for two games in January after Enzo Maresca’s exit, will take the team for the rest of the season, starting with Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Leeds. Chelsea want Rosenior’s permanent successor to have top-level experience.
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Chelsea said in confirming they had “parted company” with Rosenior: “Liam has always conducted himself with the highest integrity and professionalism following his appointment midway through the season. This has not been a decision the Club has taken lightly, however recent results and performances have fallen below the necessary standards with still so much more to play for this season. Everyone at Chelsea FC wishes Liam every success in the future.”
In recent weeks Rosenior had also overseen an 8-2 aggregate defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. The fans have turned on him and the owners, BlueCo, and Rosenior was highly critical of his players after the game at Brighton. “That was unacceptable in every aspect of the game,” he said. “Unacceptable in the attitude. I keep coming out and defending the players, but that’s unacceptable tonight. Something needs to change drastically right here, right now.”
The change, it quickly turned out, was to be his exit. He joined from Chelsea’s partner club Strasbourg in January and a positive start of six wins in seven matches, including victory at Napoli in the Champions League, has given way to Chelsea losing five successive league games without scoring for the first time since 1912.
Rosenior spoke to the sporting leadership team on Wednesday to offer his thoughts on how to get the season back on track but they were not persuaded to keep him. There has been some sympathy within Chelsea for Rosenior’s plight. He has not had a pre-season and at Brighton was without Cole Palmer, Reece James, João Pedro, Levi Colwill, Jamie Gittens and Estêvão Willian, who has been ruled out for the season with a hamstring injury, leaving the Brazil winger likely to miss the World Cup.
There is a view that Rosenior inherited a difficult situation and there are figures within Chelsea who were desperate for the Englishman to succeed.