The Winners, Losers From Liam Rosenior’s Swift Chelsea Exit

The consequences of Liam Rosenior’s departure will be felt instantly at Chelsea.

The Liam Rosenior era at Chelsea is over after less than four months. | Ben Roberts/Danehouse/Getty Images

Off the back of a torrid stretch of performances and with Champions League qualification no longer looking like a realistic possibility, Chelsea have parted ways with manager Liam Rosenior just 106 days after his appointment.

Rosenior’s tenure came to an abrupt end one day after an embarrassing 3–0 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion where Chelsea failed to register a single shot on goal. The loss was Chelsea’s fifth in a row in the Premier League without scoring a goal, a negative feat not achieved by the club since 1912—the definition of rock bottom.

Calum McFarlane will take over as Chelsea’s interim manager until the end of the season, while the club begins the search for their sixth permanent manager since the start of the 2022–23 season.

The decision to sack the English boss will have both short and long-term repercussions within Chelsea. Here are the winners and losers from Rosenior’s Stamford Bridge exit.

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Winners

Enzo Maresca

Enzo Maresca left Chelsea with his reputation intact. | James Gill/Danehouse/Getty Images

Surely former Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca had a grin on his face whenever he heard the news that the man hired as his replacement midway through the season is out after less than four months.

Maresca left Chelsea on New Year’s Day after his relationship with the club’s hierarchy fractured in swift fashion. The Italian boss began clashing with his higher-ups and took issue with their approach of how the Blues were being run.

After a poor run of results to end the year, Maresca left Chelsea and Rosenior arrived as his successor shortly after. Some of the same issues the Italian pointed out while he tried to work around them unquestionably contributed to Rosenior’s demise.

Less than a year has gone by since Maresca led Chelsea to UEFA Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup titles—the first two trophies of the BlueCo ownership era. Despite the negative stretch of results prior to his departure, Chelsea were sitting fifth in the Premier League standings at the turn of the year.

Now, Chelsea’s form has reached a new, historic low under Rosenior and the Blues are seven points back of fifth place having played an extra game, at risk of falling out of the top 10 altogether.

If anything, what’s transpired since his departure has only enhanced Maresca’s reputation.

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Enzo Fernández

Enzo Fernández was punished by Rosenior recently. | Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Chelsea vice-captain Enzo Fernández just recently returned from a two-match internal suspension for openly questioning the club and flirting with a potential Chelsea departure.

Rosenior was involved in the decision to suspend the Argentine midfielder, saying, “A line was crossed in terms of our culture and what we want to build.” Just 20 days later and that culture Rosenior intended to build has crumbled, and Fernández’s comments seem to be validated by the latest chapter of Chelsea turmoil.

Chelsea defeated League One side Port Vale and lost to Manchester City without their suspended vice captain. Although the results likely would’ve been the same with Fernández on the pitch, the criticism he directed the club’s way about “not understanding” some of the decisions being made ring all the more true now.

Fernández was suspended two weeks ago, and now, the man heavily responsible for said suspension is gone. If things don’t change, the star midfielder could very well be the next to head for the exit door in search of a better environment.

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Losers

Jorrel Hato

Jorrel Hato saw his minutes increase under Rosenior. | Jacques Feeney/Offside/Getty Images

After struggling for consistent minutes under Maresca during the first half of the season, 20-year-old center back Jorrel Hato started and played every minute of the last six games of the Rosenior era.

An injury to regular starter Trevoh Chalobah contributed to his surge in playing time, but even once the English defender returned, Hato started in defense alongside him against Brighton. The Dutchman has nine starts in the Premier League this season, seven of which came under Rosenior.

Tosin Adarabioyo and Josh Acheampong both were more often than not picked ahead of Hato in Maresca’s XI’s during the opening months of the campaign. Yet the minutes granted to the pair of defenders in prominent matches were scarce under Rosenior, with Hato being the biggest beneficiary.

It’s unlikely that Hato continues as an undisputed starter in the coming weeks. It might be a small sample size, but in the two Premier League games McFarlane oversaw at the turn of the year, Hato was on the bench for both. Meanwhile, Acheampong, Tosin and even Benoît Badiashile registered a start.

Rosenior clearly highly rated the young Dutchman, and although he has plenty of potential, it’s doubtful he continues to feature as prominently as he had over the past month.

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BlueCo Ownership

Co-owner Behdad Eghbali (center) and sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart have nowhere to hide. | Visionhaus/Getty Images

Nobody will argue that Rosenior’s sacking wasn’t merited, but he was clearly ill-prepared for the job and set-up to fail by those responsible of putting him in that position in the first place: Chelsea’s BlueCo ownership and co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart.

The decision-makers in charge of Chelsea have turned a previously perennial Premier League and Champions League contender into a laughing stock. Chelsea are no closer to winning the Premier League now than when BlueCo took over four years ago. In fact, they’ve regressed.

Rosenior’s dismissal is particularly damming when you consider BlueCo snatched him from Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg to bring him to Stamford Bridge. After generating massive turmoil on two separate fronts, their gamble has backfired spectacularly.

Now, the fifth season under BlueCo’s leadership will once again have Chelsea starting from scratch, with a sixth permanent manager looking to avoid succumbing to the same fate as the previous five during BlueCo’s reign.

Chelsea majority co-owner Behdad Eghbali has become the target of vocal protests, with the sporting directors and the recruitment model they’ve installed at Stamford Bridge also coming under serious fire.

“We will undertake a process of self-reflection,” Chelsea said in the statement of Rosenior’s departure. Well, recent precedent suggests that won’t happen, because while Maresca and Rosenior are currently without a job, the people responsible for hiring them received a pay increase despite Chelsea’s worrying finances.

Players and managers have been treated as disposable or tradable assets under BlueCo. But those in charge of making executive decisions at the club remain the same, and they’re the ones truly responsible for the mess Chelsea have become.

Rosenior’s exit is only further proof that BlueCo’s Chelsea project has been nothing but a massive failure.

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