4 days ago
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League of his own
©TM/IMAGO
Chelsea have confirmed the appointment of Liam Rosenior as their new head coach, replacing Enzo Maresca. The Blues have shown incredible faith in the 41-year-old by handing him an initial five-and-a-half-year contract with an option of a further season. Joining Chelsea represents a significant jump from his previous role as head coach at Strasbourg with Rosenior’s only other managerial experience arriving at Hull City.
It’s the natural progression for the Englishman, however, as Strasbourg are part of the BlueCo multi-club ownership group, fronted by Todd Boehly, that also controls Chelsea. Rosenior enjoyed an incredibly fruitful 18 months in France, ensuring Strasbourg returned to European competition for the first time in eight years after a seventh-placed finish last season in Ligue 1. The most impressive aspect of Rosenior’s success with Strasbourg was his commitment to developing young players and that faith was fundamental to his appointment at Chelsea.
The incredible stats behind Liam Rosenior’s record with young players
BlueCo’s strategy in the transfer market since gaining control at Chelsea has been widely derided but their approach is clear - try to obtain the best emerging talents in the world. And that strategy is exactly why Rosenior’s appointment makes perfect sense, despite much criticism. Naturally, there is alignment between the two BlueCo clubs’ directive with Strasbourg relying heavily on young players, including numbers loanees from Chelsea. And as the graphic below illustrates, Liam Rosenior is in a league of his own when it comes to providing opportunities to youngsters.
Since his appointment in July 2024, Rosenior handed more than twice as many minutes (15,101) to U21 players than any other manager of a top five league stats, which is quite an incredible statistic. Naturally there was instruction from Rosenior’s superiors to implement this strategy at Strasbourg but he succeeded superbly and aided significant development of younger stars. The demands will be similar at Chelsea as evidenced by the fact that the Stamford Bridge club have the youngest squad in the Premier League this season and Rosenior’s predecessor Maresca ranked third for minutes to U21 players during his tenure.
