How Much Liam Rosenior Sacking Cost Chelsea—Reports

BlueCo have parted ways with five different managers at an eye-watering expense.

Liam Rosenior left Chelsea less than four months into a six-and-a-half-year contract. | Robbie Jay Barratt-AMA/Getty Images

Chelsea have reportedly saved themselves millions by inserting a break clause into Liam Rosenior’s contract which was triggered after results spiraled in recent weeks.

Rosenior penned a six-and-a-half-year deal when he left Strasbourg to join the Blues on Jan. 6, only to be sent packing 106 days later. With six years left on annual salary thought to be in the region of $5.4 million (£4 million), Rosenior’s exit was met with speculation that Chelsea would have to cough up more than $32 million for less than three months’ work.

However, the Blues are only set to pay the equivalent of one year’s salary given how brief his stay was, The Guardian report. That’s not to say that the Rosenior misadventure has been cheap.

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The Total Cost of Liam Rosenior’s 106 Days at Chelsea

Before even taking into consideration the salary that Rosenior did earn for his near four months in west London, Chelsea had to pay Strasbourg for his services after parting company with Enzo Maresca.

This must have been an intriguing set of negotiations as the BlueCo investment group own both clubs. Right hand shaking left hand is not so hard to navigate. However, to avoid any accusations of favorable collusion, it was widely reported that Chelsea paid “market rate” for Rosenior’s services. Interestingly, no figure was put forward to support this deliberately vague term.

When Rosenior’s four months’ wages and compensation fee are combined, this market rate can be added to a total sum in the region of $7.2 million, roughly $67,000 for each day’s work, or $650,000 per win.

Fortunately for BlueCo, Maresca opted against requesting any swollen compensation after falling out with the club, per The Telegraph. However, not every manager has been so forgiving during the ownership’s trigger-happy approach to coaching appointments.

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Total Compensation Paid to Chelsea Managers Under BlueCo

Thomas Tuchel was the first Chelsea boss sacked. | IMAGO/Pro Sports Images

Manager	Departure	Reported Compensation
Thomas Tuchel	September 2022	$17.5 million
Graham Potter	April 2023	$17.5 million
Mauricio Pochettino	May 2024	$13.5 million
Enzo Maresca	January 2026	$5.4 million
Liam Rosenior	April 2026	$5.4 million

The legendary former Manchester City and Crystal Palace manager Malcolm Allison liked to say: “You’re not really a manager until you’ve been sacked.” Chelsea’s ownership appear to be taking that approach to heart.

BlueCo have cycled through five permanent managers in less than four years. While some, Mauricio Pochettino and Maresca, have agreed to part ways with the self-styled “market disruptors,” all of them have left with some sort of golden handshake.

Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter, the first two departures of a truly chaotic start to life under new ownership, received the largest payoffs. Clearly, this sacking culture was not foreseen. The Daily Mail reported at the time that Tuchel was entitled to $17.5 million after being shown the door in September 2022 despite playing an outsized role in that summer’s recruitment at a time when there was no sporting director and co-owner Todd Boehly cosplayed as a transfer guru. Tuchel’s contract also reportedly entitled his staff to $2.7 million.

Potter lasted only nine months—eons compared to Rosenior—before he was packing up his desk with an extra $17.5 million, per the Mail.

Pochettino managed to last an entire season in 2023–24 only to agree that it was best for everyone to part ways during a post-campaign review of his sixth-placed finish. The Argentine was helped out of the door with as much as $13.5 million, although Chelsea had agreed to that arrangement on the understanding that they would get some of the money back in the event that he joined another top-six Premier League club, per Mark Ogden of ESPN. Pochettino’s subsequent move to the U.S. men’s national team was an unforeseen (and costly) outcome.

While Maresca rejected the full compensation he had been entitled to, the Italian left the club at the turn of the year after reportedly settling on similar terms to Rosenior, namely one year’s salary. Which, according to ESPN, was worth the same $5.4 million.

All that compensation comes to an eye-watering total of somewhere in the region of $59.3 million—and that’s not even taking into consideration how much it cost BlueCo to hire some of these coaches; both Potter and Maresca are thought to have commanded eight-digit sums.

Chelsea’s hierarchy may want to keep these figures in mind when they turn to Rosenior’s replacement. One thing’s certain: their contract will contain a break clause.

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