Expert insight from France 

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Chelsea struck a New Year’s shock as they parted ways with manager Enzo Maresca on the first day of 2026 after the Italian had gotten the Blues back in the Champions League and won the Europa Conference League and the Club World Cup in his initial season with the club. The West London side have become notorious for chopping and changing managers this century. Maresca is the latest boss to experience just that. But it could be a surprise name who replaces the 45-year-old in the Chelsea dugout. According to The Athletic, Strasbourg manager Liam Rosenior is the leading contender to replace Maresca as the new Chelsea head coach.

The 41-year-old former Hull City, Reading and Brighton player currently tops the list of candidates, although Chelsea have also vetted other coaches. Rosenior is well-known by Chelsea’s hierarchy, having worked closely with them and impressed during his time at fellow BlueCo club Strasbourg in Ligue 1. He also has a previous working relationship with both of the club’s co-sporting directors, Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley. So is Rosenior ready to come to the Premier League and take on a job with such huge expectation? Could he be the next big thing in management? With expert insight from France, we try to answer those questions.

What could Liam Rosenior bring to Chelsea?

So far, Rosenior has managed just 152 games in professional football (12 at Derby, 78 at Hull and 62 at Strasbourg). Lucas Nybord is Transfermarkt’s Content manager in France and has been watching Rosenior closely in Ligue 1. He tells us more about the manager’s impact in North-Eastern France: “Although Strasbourg have struggled a bit lately in Ligue 1(four games without a win), his spell at the club has been spectacular for lots of reason.” Nybord continues, “His team play nice attacking football, they get good results (seventh in Ligue 1 last season qualifying for the Conference League), and developing young players. He settled in Ligue 1 quickly although he didn’t speak the language and had no experience at the top level. Yet he was in the shortlist for best Ligue 1 manager last season.”

Asked what type of football Rosenior’s Strasbourg team play, Nybord said: “High intense pressing and lots of building up playing out from the back. There is also some tactical flexibility depending on whether his team has the ball or not.” But are there any weaknesses in his game? “It’s not necessarily on him but the management of striker Emmanuel Emegha has been surprising,” admits Nybord. “He was named captain at the beginning of the season, but they suspended him recently for a statement he did in the press. The Félix Lemaréchal situation has also been questionable. He performed really well in the second half of last season but this season sometimes he’s a starter and then the next game he gets benched for no particular reason.

“So maybe individual player management could be something he could work on. This could be difficult at Chelsea, with so much more exposure and bigger names and ego in the changing room. Finally, asled whether he thinks Rosenior is ready to manage in the Premier League at a club like Chelsea with huge expectations, Nybord said, ” Well, he could be ready to join the Premier League but at a big club like Chelsea, it’s hard to say. He will play young players, which is something the Chelsea board seem to want from a manager, but I guess what matters most is results, and they might not come straight away.”