Liam Rosenior’s position as Chelsea head coach is currently considered safe – even if the club end up failing to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Despite four consecutive defeats generating a great deal of noise externally on Rosenior’s future, internally the Blues’ hierarchy have no intention of making another hasty managerial change.
Club insiders say only an almighty collapse would force them to reconsider that stance this summer, but there is confidence that will not happen.
Rosenior replaced Enzo Maresca in January, swapping Strasbourg for Chelsea as he moved from one sister club to the other and signed a five-and-a-half year contract plus the option of an extra year.
His primary target is to retain their place in the Champions League and they are now sixth in the Premier League – one point behind Liverpool in fifth in what is expected to be the final qualification position.
While Rosenior would have to accept some blame in the event that Chelsea miss out on making it into Europe’s elite competition, we are told it would not all fall on the head coach after his arrival midway through this campaign.
Work has already started on transfers ahead of what is anticipated to be an important summer for Chelsea – crucially with Rosenior heavily involved in recruitment meetings with the sporting director team led by Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart.
Indeed, one source told us that Rosenior has already been allowed more involvement in these talks than his predecessor Maresca.
One troubling issue of late has been in the defensive department, where the Blues have failed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last nine Premier League fixtures. In losing to Everton, Newcastle and twice to Paris Saint-Germain over the last two weeks, they have been beaten 12-2 on aggregate.
That is despite the statistics saying Chelsea had a better ‘expected goals’ total than their four opponents combined, with Rosenior blaming their bad run on ‘moments’ such as individual mistakes.
Central defence will be an area of focus this summer. January saw Chelsea miss out on winning the race for Jeremy Jacquet, the highly-rated 20-year-old centre back at Rennes who will join rivals Liverpool this summer instead.
Chelsea are currently struggling with defensive injuries, with Levi Colwill back training after his ACL injury but still some way from making his first competitive appearance of the season, and Reece James and Trevoh Chalobah both sidelined.
Wesley Fofana is fit, but has been out of form during this spell of defeats.
After this international break, they will face Port Vale in the FA Cup’s quarter finals then Manchester City and Manchester United in the Premier League – all at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues’ vice-captain Enzo Fernandez hinted at discord in the dressing room under Rosenior in an emotional interview after exiting the Champions League, as he criticised the way former manager Enzo Maresca’s departure was handled and suggested his future at the club was uncertain.
But Rosenior insisted that the players were behind him after their 3-0 defeat to Everton last weekend.
‘For me, I don’t think there’s a lack of effort. I don’t think there’s a lack of belief or determination in the team,’ Rosenior said after the final whistle.
‘In fact, I felt like Enzo kept going until the very, very last minute today.
‘So, I’m aware when you’re on a run of defeats that we’re on, and when you’re on a run of performances that we’ve had, those things get levelled at you. But I don’t think that’s the issue in this moment.’
