Liam Rosenior confirmed his exit from French club Strasbourg on Tuesday and strongly hinted he will be the next Chelsea coach.
Rosenior has been praised for turning Strasbourg, which is part of the same ownership group as Chelsea, into a force in French soccer after a seventh-place finish last season.
Rosenior told a press conference in Strasbourg he has an agreement with Chelsea but has not signed a contract.
“Everything is agreed, it will probably go through in the next few hours,” he said.
“It looks like I will be the next manager of that football club.”
Rosenior’s previous jobs include a stint as assistant coach at Derby to Wayne Rooney, who praised his “incredible” work ethic and attention to detail.
“He’s more than capable of going into Chelsea and doing a great job,” Rooney said on his podcast on Monday. “His detail, how he approaches day to day, he’s as good as I’ve ever worked with.”
The 41-year-old Rosenior has never coached in the Premier League.
Chelsea last week parted company with Enzo Maresca, who spent 18 months in charge.
Moving to Chelsea will bring much more visibility and pressure for Rosenior.
The fifth permanent coach since BlueCo ownership took over in 2022, Rosenior will inherit a team which is capable of high-level success but has lacked consistency. Chelsea is fifth in the league with a 17-point gap to leader Arsenal.
Rosenior could head straight into his first competitive game on Wednesday against Fulham, one of his former clubs as a player.
Interim coach Calum McFarlane laid out one potential challenge when he revealed some players had been left stunned by the decision to move on from Maresca’s 18-month tenure.
“Enzo was incredibly successful with this group and some of them were shocked by the decision,” McFarlane said on Sunday.
Maresca left after a reported breakdown in his relationships with club management and made cryptic public comments about a lack of support. McFarlane stepped in as interim coach to oversee Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
Getting the Chelsea job is a rare top-level opportunity for a Black British coach in the Premier League.
“This opportunity for me is something I can't turn down at this moment in my life,” Rosenior said, adding that the perspective of being reunited with his family added an extra incentive.
“It means that I can go home and see my kids,” he said. “I'm away from my children, I missed them. And I wanted to make the sacrifice of not seeing them worth it, with the success that we have here.”
Son of former player and coach Leroy Rosenior, Liam played in the Premier League as a full back for Fulham, Reading, Hull and Brighton over the course of a 16-year professional career, as well as for England Under-21s.
He returned to Hull for his first head coach role in 2022 and joined Strasbourg two years later.
