Henry Winter: Much More to Next Chelsea Manager Liam Rosenior Than You Might Think

With Liam Rosenior expected to replace Enzo Maresca as Chelsea manager, Sports Illustrated columnist Henry Winter gives the lowdown of what to expect from the Strasbourg boss.

Strasbourg's Liam Rosenior is heavily reported to become the next Chelsea manager. / Ross Parker/SNS Group/Getty Images

A club increasingly depicted as a soulless business operation are currently seeking to appoint as manager a soulful man admired for his warmth and emotional intelligence. Liam Rosenior to Chelsea seems a risk, a contrast of personalities, a relationship doomed to failure in many eyes.

But anyone who knows Rosenior knows he relishes a challenge, gets on with people from dressing room to boardroom and that he has been craving this chance to work in the Champions League. The inexperienced Rosenior, 41, will give everything to make this work.

The young Strasbourg coach has been waiting for this moment ever since he was 11 and doing scouting reports for his father, Leroy, at Gloucester City. He’s been waiting for this moment ever since he was a player, and would stand at the edge of the tunnel when injured or suspended, simply to get a manager’s perspective of a game.

He’s been waiting for this moment ever since playing under Chris Coleman, Steve Coppell, Brendan Rodgers, Steve Bruce and Chris Hughton, and learning from them. He’s been waiting for this elite-level opportunity ever since getting his UEFA Pro Licence aged 32 while still playing for Brighton & Hove Albion.

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Hungry to Learn

Rosenior (left) learnt his trade under managers such as Wayne Rooney while at Derby County. / Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Every time I have spoken to Rosenior on his coaching journey his desire to make it as a first-team coach was abundantly clear. I talked to him in 2018 at Brighton where he was assistant coach for the U-23s, then specialist first-team coach to Phillip Cocu at Derby County in 2019, and when he was assistant to Wayne Rooney at Derby in 2021. All the time he was looking and learning.

Eager to develop, Rosenior studied Rooney closely. Rooney was in the canteen at Derby’s training ground one morning, and mentioned to Rosenior that one particular player was not eating his breakfast cereal with his usual gusto. Rooney had a quiet word, and discovered the player was distracted by a domestic issue. Rosenior absorbed another lesson in the art of handling players.

“Top coaches have to have empathy,” Rosenior told me once. “Yes, you can be tough, but you have to understand people. You can't shout at players like you used to.” His measured stance was appreciated as a pundit on Sky Sports programmes, especially “The Debate.” He became a respected pundit because he spoke fluidly, calmly and insightfully.

He’s a very popular figure in football. People instinctively warm to him. He's enthusiastic, optimistic and thoughtful. Managers like him. Sir Gareth Southgate, during his time in charge of England, gave Rosenior four hours of his time in his office at St George’s Park. They conversed in depth about football but also more broadly about life. There is plenty of hinterland to Rosenior.

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Popular and Trusted

Pep Guardiola trusted Rosenior (right) with Man City talent (and now Chelsea striker) Liam Delap (left) at Hull City. / Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

When he was appointed manager of Hull City later in 2022, it became very clear how other managers trusted him. Pep Guardiola sent him Liam Delap on loan. Jürgen Klopp loaned him Tyler Morton and Fabio Carvalho. Guardiola and Klopp knew their youngsters would develop under Rosenior.

He encouraged a team ethos by showing his Hull players a video of his assistant, Justin Walker, towing him out of a flooded road puddle when Rosenior’s car got stuck. “Life isn't perfect but your mate needs to have your back,” Rosenior told his players. “The first person I called was my best friend Justin.”

He studied Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton. He loved how De Zerbi’s Brighton went man for man with Guardiola’s Manchester City. He followed De Zerbi’s risk-taking example and went man for man against Enzo Maresca’s Leicester City at King Power Stadium in September 2023. Delap scored to end Leicester’s perfect start to the Championship season.

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Brave and Willing to Take Risks

Rosenior (right) had success with risk-taking tactics against departed Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca at Hull and Leicester respectively. / Isabella Bonotto/Anadolu/Getty Images

Rosenior’s players pressed Maresca’s relentlessly and successfully. Hull stuck to their young coach’s bold game plan and were rewarded. “I’ve been here for eight months and we wouldn't have been capable of doing that when I first came in,” Rosenior told BBC Radio Humberside afterwards. “That's why I keep saying it's a process.”

That comment is worth bearing in mind as he goes into Chelsea. There will be a process, namely drilling his players into his high-pressing way. They will need to be very fit and very committed. How long Chelsea fans give “the process” remains to be seen. They were growing fed up with Maresca, and demanded more entertainment, but also directed their anger at the owners and sporting directors.

Some will see Rosenior as a “yes man” appointment drafted in by Chelsea’s owners, BlueCo, who also own Strasbourg, when he’s far from that. But Rosenior will still have to work within a structure—and with recruitment strictures such as with young players to be traded eventually.

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Needs Players to Back Him Early

Rosenior will need the Chelsea players to buy into his methods early if he's to be a success at Stamford Bridge. / Isabella Bonotto/Anadolu/Getty Images

It is key for Rosenior’s success, or chance to implement his process, that players respond quickly and positively to him. There will be the inevitable “put your medals on the table” moment. That won’t take long as Rosenior won only the Football League Trophy with Bristol City in 2003. But he can point to largely edging a duel with Cristiano Ronaldo when Fulham drew with Manchester United at Craven Cottage in 2004. Rosenior loves a challenge.

History shows that players want to play for him. They like his personality and philosophy. He told his Hull players, “Give 100% in and out of possession, love and respect your teammates and don’t hide from the ball. You have to be brave.” Players respect that he’s brave.

He stands up against intolerance. When he was racially abused by an opponent as a teenaged full-back, Rosenior responded by tearing two-footed into his abuser. At a young age, visiting his grandmother in Hull, he looked round the Wilberforce House, dedicated to social reformer William Wilberforce and his successful fight to abolish the slave trade in 1807.

Continuing the campaigning ethos of his father, Rosenior regularly speaks out against racism. He himself was racially abused online in 2024. Players respect how he stands up against discrimination.

Players want to play for him. Jaden Philogene left Aston Villa for Hull knowing that Rosenior would improve him. Rosenior made the effort to see Philogene and the loanees in advance, building a connection. He treats them as human beings.

Eight years ago, Liam Rosenior had strong words on Chelsea’s managerial churn. pic.twitter.com/iMeVpL29Gv

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Jacob Greaves matured so impressively under Rosenior that he was named in the Championship Team of the Season in 2024. Rosenior himself was nominated for Championship Manager of the Season. He was sacked by Hull for narrowly failing to finish in the playoffs, a decision that caused outrage. No allowance was made for the goalscoring Delap missing three months injured. Rosenior’s successor, Tim Walter, was hopeless and lasted only 18 games.

Within two months, Rosenior was appointed Strasbourg’s manager, qualified them for the UEFA Conference League and had interest from Premier League clubs. Now Chelsea’s owners, BlueCo, see him as the man to succeed Maresca.

Rosenior has plenty of work to do at Chelsea, and plenty of convincing. He will give everything to make it work. “I’m a giver,” Rosenior told me in 2022. “I like seeing people achieve. I like helping them.” And they need help. And so will he.

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READ HENRY WINTER’S WEEKLY SPORTS ILLUSTRATED COLUMN

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