A run of bad results and disastrous performances has put Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior in a precarious position as club leadership looks for a replacement.
Chelsea began the year in the most turbulent way possible, firing its coach and project leader on Jan. 1. As if suffering from a bad hangover, the Blue fan saw his leader leave without any explanation, by decision of the board, and in the following week, they handed the project to Liam Rosenior, who had shown good leadership skills at Strasbourg.
In fact, his start at Stamford Bridge was promising, collecting positive results weekend after weekend, but the Champions League has brought things back into perspective, and when times have gotten tough, Rosenior has repeated the same demands that Maresca made in his day: that the squad is not mature enough to compete for everything at this time.
Rosenior has insisted that two or three signings in specific positions are needed to be able to go toe-to-toe with the continent’s giants, and that is precisely what his predecessors communicated before being fired. Recent losses against Newcastle United and Everton have heightened the crisis at Stamford Bridge, and according to the British press, it is not certain he will finish the campaign.
If they choose to fire him, according to TeamTalk, Filipe Luis is the best positioned to take his place. Having left Flamengo in that manner after leading them to lift the Libertadores, the former Atletico Madrid player wants to try his luck in the best league in the world, and the fact that he already knows the club is significant in his favor for being chosen.
The pressure on Rosenior is clearly no coincidence; it is part of the same pattern we have seen at Chelsea since the ownership change: they have been unable to stick with a manager. Whether the board allows him to finish the season to see if his game plan ultimately takes hold, or whether they fire him midway through the campaign, will be determined by results in the coming weeks.
With European places still within reach, but with a team that shows one face one day and another the next, the decision they make will set the club's course for a long time. Chelsea, after 31 Premier League matches played, sits in sixth place with 48 points, just one point behind fifth place, which will grant access to next season's Champions League.
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