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Heathrow to most American east coast cities you looking at 6 to 8 hours travel time.same with places like Chicago.i sat next to cricket world cup winner with England,Liam Plunkett,during a Heathrow to Philly flight.I was going to my annual couple of NFL games.he was visiting his American girlfriend.is not that far..plus London business capital of Britain,New York business capital of America..is going to be some ex-pats...etc. And back in the 80's with Concorde..London to New York was quicker than old folks push out a turd..

Because there are British expats here. Enough of them to fill a bar on 33rd street during the big games + Chelsea has marketed in the US in the recent past after the successes in the Roman era. Fwiw Chicago has a sizable Chelsea following too that gathered to watch the draw vs City.

Presuming Rosenior will stick with 4-2-3-1 atleast for now.

I'd go Sanchez,Gusto,Acheampong,Badi,Hato,Caicedo,Santos,Estevao,Pedro,Gittens,Delap. Riskier selection but with a strong bench that could come on in 2nd half if required.it would I think increase chances of winning the upcoming 2 cup ties.

Feel sorry for Strasbourg fans. They must feel like Blueco is like Tesco, and an area manager has just been posted to another branch. Franchisetastic

You can only keep so many so happy and this is the thing with City this season, they have rotated a hell of a lot and one of the reasons they have struggled and slipped off.

The project puppet needs to go strong or go home Sanchez, Gusto, Fofana, Trev, Hato, Caicedo, Enzo, Santos, Estevao, Delap Neto Palmer give him time as apparently he is feeling it again

Not sure tbh. Thats not to say they dont affiliate with other clubs as well, but Chelsea back in the day were the club of choice. Chelsea hotel ? Early 80s we ran an unofficial Chelsea away supporters club, (threatened with legal action by the club, long story), my point being people came from Cornwall, Devon etc, and two guys used to fly over from New York every two weeks to join us. Proper commitment !

Why is that? Because there is Chelsea neighbourhood in NYC?

There was always a subtantial Chelsea following in New York, even pre Abramovich, several bars used to show our games. But yes, there will be more of this seeing as so many Americans have invested in PL, pays good dividends apparently We'll probably see a ramping up of all things Saaaacer now in US media seeing as theyre hosting the 'World Series Trump Cup sponsored by Venezuela Oil and Greenland minerals'

Been a while since we played Charlton away but when did The Valley shrink into The Village?

Does BlueCo or Boehly own the NY Times 🤣? Not sure if it’s a coincidence or not but they always post a lot of pro/positive/optimistic Chelsea articles when things are going shite.

Sure will be a nice option for them. Semenyo, Doku, Marmoush, Savinho, Foden, Chekri, Bernardo Silva… quality options for wide & central positions. Liverpool or United would’ve been the clubs that best fit him in terms of what they needed positionally & competition but he will also get a good number of minutes for City. Same bloke who thought Delap, Gittens & Garnacho signings made us title challengers🤣

Covering all bases with 2 different opinions on the same players?

City didn't need Semenyo, they just didn't want anyone else getting him

What Liam Rosenior might have learned watching Chelsea from the stands https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6952650/2026/01/08/liam-rosenior-Chelsea-fulham/ Liam Rosenior was back on familiar ground at Craven Cottage on Wednesday. Yet the former Fulham defender is now heading into uncharted territory, as he prepares to manage in the Premier League for the first time, thrown in at the deep end with a struggling Chelsea. Rosenior, 41, was confirmed as Chelsea head coach on Tuesday on a contract until 2032, replacing Enzo Maresca, who departed on New Year’s Day. Watching on from the stands and seated next to co-owner Behdad Eghbali, Chelsea’s disjointed performance showed the scale of the job that awaits him. This 2-1 defeat means they have now recorded just one win in their past nine Premier League matches. They are now eighth in the table, level on points with Fulham. In the away section at Craven Cottage, the restless travelling fans turned on their owners, with chants of “F*** off Eghbali” and “We don’t care about Clearlake, they don’t care about us, all we care about is Chelsea FC” audible during the second half. Chelsea fans in the front row of the away end also held up a banner saying “BlueCo Out”. That puts Rosenior — who joined from BlueCo-owned Strasbourg — under even greater pressure to hit the ground running and win over the sceptical fanbase. On a tough night for Chelsea, there were some small grounds for optimism, including a first Premier League goal for Liam Delap, who played under Rosenior at Hull City. However, many of the issues that have plagued them all season — most obviously their disciplinary problems — were clear for Rosenior to see. Here’s what Rosenior might have learned about the job he’s walking into. The fans are not at all happy with the owners In a Chelsea fan survey this week, 90 per cent of supporters said they did not have confidence in the club’s owners. That followed Maresca’s exit on New Year’s Day, the fifth head coach to depart since BlueCo, a consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, bought Chelsea in 2022. Against Fulham, Chelsea’s travelling fans made their feelings clear with loud chants against Clearlake and Eghbali, while they also chanted in favour of Roman Abramovich, their previous owner. With Eghbali singled out in the chants, it must have been an awkward evening for Rosenior, who was sat next to Chelsea’s co-owner during the match. Poking fun at their former player, Fulham’s supporters also chanted “Rozzy, what’s the score?” when they went ahead. “Chelsea’s built on winning, I’m aware of that, the fans should be proud of the history of this club,” Rosenior told Sky Sports before the game. “I want to entertain as well, but the game at this level is about winning.” He needs results, and quickly, to win over Chelsea’s supporters. Chelsea’s disciplinary issues need resolving Chelsea’s players argued vociferously about Marc Cucurella’s red cardVince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images Chelsea’s ill-discipline has been a big problem again this season, and it was a familiar tale against Fulham. Marc Cucurella, one of Chelsea’s best performers this season, was sent off 22 minutes into the game after pulling back Harry Wilson when he was the last man. Chelsea have now been shown five red cards in the Premier League this season — they have only received more (six) in one season, 2007-08 — and seven overall. Some of those have been particularly daft, most notably Delap’s two yellow cards in seven minutes against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup in October. Following the Cucurella red, three Chelsea players, Cole Palmer, Enzo Fernandez and Tosin Adarabioyo, were booked for dissent. That means Chelsea have now picked up 47 yellow cards this season, the fourth-worst disciplinary record in the division, behind Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth. “Obviously, there’s been a lot made of the red cards this season,” interim manager Calum McFarlane said in the press conference after the game. “I don’t think this red card is ill-disciplined. The three yellow cards directly after is something we’ll have to look at. I would then argue that they show discipline to not get another yellow card in a tough game with 10 men. So you can look at it either way.” This is an all-too-familiar problem for Rosenior, as his Strasbourg side had the fourth-worst disciplinary record in France’s Ligue 1, with 34 yellow cards and four reds, behind only Monaco, Toulouse and Lille. For Chelsea to progress, Rosenior must get a handle on this poor record. Chelsea struggle when opponents go direct The fact Cucurella’s red card was the result of a long ball down the middle of the pitch from Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno must have alarmed Rosenior. In the second half, there was a carbon copy of the same move, when Leno again aimed straight down the middle of the pitch to Wilson, with substitute Jorrel Hato scampering back to avoid further embarrassment. Much like in the Bournemouth game, Chelsea look vulnerable when opponents play long and direct against them. In that match on December 30, Andoni Iraola’s side had 14 shots in the first half — the highest number Chelsea have faced in the first half of a home Premier League game on record (from 2003-04), according to Opta. Delap’s first league goal could kickstart his Chelsea career Liam Delap celebrates scoring his first Premier League goal for ChelseaBradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images It has been tough going for Delap since his move to Chelsea in the summer. Yet the 22-year-old is a player who will have been especially buoyed by Rosenior’s appointment, following their time together at Hull City, where he spent the 2023-24 season on loan from Manchester City. Tan Kesler, then Hull’s vice-chairman and now the chief executive of Polish club Pogon Szczecin, told The Athletic in an article this week. “He came to us and his confidence was shattered. He was doubting his ability but we knew he had the quality. Liam (Rosenior) and his staff worked with him one-on-one in meetings to educate him. Liam is a good educator and he’s patient.” Delap impressed after coming off the bench against Manchester City on Sunday, and he followed that up on Wednesday with some impressive hold-up play, as well as his first Premier League goal for Chelsea. The hope is that Rosenior can help Delap build on this and use it as a springboard to launch his Chelsea career. Rosenior’s first game in charge comes when Chelsea face Charlton Athletic at The Valley in an FA Cup tie on Saturday. He will then lead his new team out for the first time at Stamford Bridge for the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal, before a league match against Brentford three days later. After Wednesday’s chants from the away end, it is clear he needs a strong start. For Rosenior, the hard work starts now. By Tom Burrows Football News Reporter

Could this be the turning point in Liam Delap’s time at Chelsea? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6952802/2026/01/08/liam-delap-Chelsea-fulham-analysis/ More than 200 days after completing his move from Ipswich Town, is Liam Delap finally finding his feet at Chelsea? One of the most significant moments of Delap’s Stamford Bridge career so far came early in the 2-0 win over Fulham in August, when he pulled up, grimacing, with the hamstring injury that would rule him out for two months. He will hope the reverse fixture on Wednesday, though overshadowed by a 2-1 defeat, will also be a turning point in his story at this club. Delap’s Chelsea career has not started as anyone hoped. When he swivelled and fired home Chelsea’s then-equaliser in the 72nd minute at Craven Cottage, it ended an 18-game run without a goal for him in the Premier League — stretching back to scoring against Wolverhampton Wanderers for Ipswich in April. It is his second goal outside of the Club World Cup for Chelsea, adding to one scored in the 3-0 Champions League win against Barcelona in November. Delap’s absence throughout September and October as he recovered from that hamstring injury, followed by another layoff with a shoulder problem in December, has meant he has not put together any consistent form. Until Wednesday he had yet to complete a full match this season. For a striker who shone for relegated Ipswich last season, and who drew interest from multiple Premier League sides this summer, the numbers were not adding up. Undoubtedly, that was mostly due to injury, but Delap has also not helped himself at times. His return from injury against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup was cut short by a red card Enzo Maresca described as “embarrassing”. He has picked up two yellow cards since, including one within two minutes of being introduced against Aston Villa. As incoming head coach Liam Rosenior, who is already familiar with Delap after coaching him on loan at Hull City in 2023-24, watched from the stands at Craven Cottage, he will have picked up on numerous problems he needs to address quickly at Cobham. One of the positives he can pluck out of that defeat, though, is that Delap is finally beginning to look like the player Chelsea paid £30m for in June. Delap the target man started to emerge as a more effective force in November and December, showing his ability to agitate defenders, hold up the ball with his back to goal, and link up with his wingers. But that was inconsistent, shown only in glimpses, and more importantly, Delap the finisher was nowhere to be found. He appeared isolated at times, generating little in the way of clear-cut opportunities, and that frustration showed in ill-discipline. Delap scores from a corner against FulhamMike Hewitt/Getty Images Wednesday’s game at Fulham was the first time that fans have seen Delap the target man and Delap the finisher and technician really appear. Far from appearing isolated, he was involved in more attacking sequences than any other player on the pitch — particularly impressive given that Chelsea were down to 10 men for most of the game. That often involved dropping off and holding up the ball before teeing up an onrushing colleague. As Delap has built his minutes back up after injury, he is growing more vocal and more enterprising in his off-the-ball movement to capitalise on space in behind. When Marc Cucurella was sent off in the 22nd minute, it could have turned into another frustrating and isolated evening for Delap — but he continued to occupy Fulham’s back line and pulled his weight defensively, too, ranking fourth for defensive actions. Before his goal, Delap’s best moment came late in the first half. With his back to goal and Joachim Andersen grappling with him near the halfway line, the striker kept his feet rather than go to ground for a free-kick. He turned Andersen and pulled away from him and Sander Berge to create a counter-attack that eventually saw Cole Palmer’s effort saved. It encapsulated what a fit, firing Delap can add to Chelsea’s build-up; then, in the second half, he added the end product. He had already run through on goal after linking up with Palmer, but was denied by Bernd Leno. It was eventually from a corner that he found the breakthrough, turning home Pedro Neto’s delivery after it rebounded from the post. It was a close-range finish, but he reacted well to lose his marker and convert first-time with his body at an awkward angle. That goal should also help Delap bond with a fanbase he has not been able to share much celebration with this season. His goal against Barcelona was welcome but ultimately a cherry on top of what had already been a superb performance; this time, he looked to have actually won Chelsea a point and celebrated fervently with the away end. Harry Wilson’s superb late winner left Delap’s goal ultimately as a consolation — but in the moment, it meant more. This is only a start. There are still areas to work on: Delap was not booked but committed three fouls, the joint-most on the pitch. His output from open play can improve. But now, with a clean slate and working with a manager under whom he has blossomed before, things are certainly looking up. “I thought Liam was brilliant when he came on at the Etihad,” said interim manager Calum McFarlane after Wednesday’s match. “You can see that he had the bit between his teeth against his old side. He gave us a real outlet. His link-up play, his hold-up play was exceptional. Tough circumstances tonight, being the single No 9 down to 10 men. But even then, you see him fight, bully, control centre-backs and get us up the pitch. “He had a big chance that he’ll be disappointed to miss, which was great play from him and Cole linking up. “I’m delighted he got his goal. He deserves it. He’ll take confidence from that, and I hope his performances stay at this level.” Delap is still far from the finished product — but 217 days after he joined the club, it feels as though he is really getting started. By Cerys Jones Football Writer

The making of Liam Rosenior, the head coach: ‘He had a light. He was different’ https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6942659/2026/01/07/liam-rosenior-Chelsea-profile/ October 2022, the Mercure Hotel at Sheffield Parkway. Hull City are in need of a new head coach to lead their survival fight in the Championship and the search to find Shota Arveladze’s replacement has narrowed. Consideration has gone to Rob Edwards and others based overseas but it is Liam Rosenior, a young manager without a track record of note, who has piqued interest. A 60-page document has been submitted to Hull’s recruitment team that includes annotated footage and stills. It is Rosenior outlining the side’s problems and what he considers to be the tactical solutions in forensic detail. A philosophy laid bare. Phone calls follow before the meeting in South Yorkshire. A 20-minute PowerPoint presentation concludes with Hull officials unanimously sold on handing Rosenior his first permanent managerial position. “I would always ask players and coaches where they saw themselves in five years,” Tan Kesler, then Hull’s vice-chairman and now the chief executive of Polish club Pogon Szczecin, tells The Athletic. “Liam’s answer was that he wanted to be leading a club that’s playing in the Champions League. Not just the Premier League, the Champions League.” Rosenior, it turns out, has managed that feat inside four years. The 41-year-old has departed Strasbourg to fill the void left by Enzo Maresca, whose exit from Stamford Bridge was confirmed on New Year’s Day. To write this profile, The Athletic has spoken to people who know or have worked with Rosenior. They have asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships. Unless otherwise stated, information found within this article has been gathered from those conversations. Rosenior is tasked with reviving Chelsea’s season in an opening month that will include a Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal and more London derbies against Brentford, Crystal Palace and West Ham United. It represents an enormous challenge for a figure with so little experience. There will be plenty holding doubts — but not Rosenior. “Liam was waiting for this moment,” adds Kesler. “He’s been spending years preparing for this. When we hired him, he had a light. He was different.” It is a short road that has led Rosenior to Chelsea, beginning with an interim spell in League One as Derby County head coach in 2022, before time in charge of Hull and Strasbourg, but those close to him have always known the draw of management. His father, Leroy, says Rosenior targeted becoming a manager before he ever wanted to be a player. He read the FA Coaching Book of Soccer Tactics and Skills as a nine-year-old, as he wrote in the Coaches’ Voice, and took charge of his school football team in Bristol at 11. An accomplished career as a defender spanning 16 years took Rosenior all the way to the Premier League, but by the time he was featuring in the 2014 FA Cup final with Hull, losing in extra time to Arsenal, the first steps into coaching had already been made. Rosenior, then in his late twenties, put himself forward to work with Hull’s academy staff, attending under-21s games and watching from the dugout. He would even play an active role in dressing-room discussions, all as he qualified for the first of his coaching badges through Northern Ireland’s Football Association alongside team-mate Tom Huddlestone. A Pro Licence, the highest coaching level, was attained at 32 as he saw out his playing days with Brighton & Hove Albion. “Liam would be the one reading Pep Guardiola’s book or Jose Mourinho’s, reading anything he could on coaching,” says Curtis Davies, who played alongside Rosenior at Hull before then being coached by his one-time team-mate at Derby County. “I wouldn’t call him opinionated because he wouldn’t be standing in front of the manager and telling him what to do, but in conversations, he was always saying we might try this or that. He was always thinking about the game.” Little has changed. Rosenior spent his 18 months as Strasbourg manager living within a mile of the Stade de la Meinau and the club’s adjacent training ground, with assistant Kalifa Cisse as his housemate. Justin Walker and Ben Warner, his two most trusted allies since becoming a coach at Derby, were picked as neighbours and the quartet would typically spend evenings planning training sessions and scouting opponents. Rosenior went all-in when in Alsace, leaving his family at home in Derbyshire. Coaching, Rosenior would say, has long been his calling. There was a brief spell working as a pundit with Sky Sports after retiring in 2018, duties he juggled when coaching in Brighton’s youth ranks, but that media position inadvertently set him on this journey towards Chelsea. Derby’s then-owner, Mel Morris, had enjoyed Rosenior’s insight on TV and subsequently invited him to join Phillip Cocu’s coaching staff in the summer of 2019. It did not work out for Cocu as Derby’s financial problems began to bite, but Rosenior went on to assist Wayne Rooney, who had stepped up as player-manager in the Championship. Liam Rosenior and Wayne Rooney during their time together at Derby CountyRichard Sellers/PA Images via Getty Images “Liam is as good a coach as I’ve worked with,” said Rooney on his BBC podcast, the Wayne Rooney Show, this week. “Liam was incredible with his coaching ability.” “Under Cocu, he would do odd bits but it was the Dutch gang and him,” remembers Davies. “There was one game where we were losing and he nodded for his staff to come and have a chat in the huddle. He started speaking in Dutch and I could see Liam’s face, almost wondering what the point of it was. “That summed up his role and he got pretty frustrated but once Cocu was gone, there was an opportunity for him. The next season, when we had the points deduction, you saw Liam for how good he was. We were building a team and an identity and Liam ran away with it. We played some unbelievable football. He was meticulous. It was detail, detail. I’m sure Liam and Wayne worked very closely together but the implementation of those ideas was 90 per cent done by Liam.” During that 2021-22 season, Derby collected 55 points in the Championship under Rooney and Rosenior, but 21 points were deducted for entering administration and breaking the English Football League’s accounting rules, ensuring there was no escape from relegation to League One. It was in the third tier that Rosenior was given the responsibility of leading Derby on a short-term basis following Rooney’s exit. “Liam had to try to bring a squad together to compete in League One and he was hard done by in not getting the job permanently,” says Davies. “He was in talks for the role but Paul Warne was on the radar. Because of his experience in the league, they jumped in. Liam deserved the opportunity to take that club on after all the work he had put in.” One door closing on Rosenior, though, would soon lead to a familiar one opening. After five years as a player with Hull, the club his grandmother had actively supported, he returned as manager in the autumn of 2022. A first season soon dismissed any threat of relegation with a final position of 15th before a second ended with Hull in seventh. That remains the club’s highest standing since being relegated from the Premier League in 2016-17. Throughout, he was hands-on, a coach who led most sessions. A small squad, enabling greater time for individual coaching, was Rosenior’s preference. “Some coaches have amazing strategies and tactics but they might struggle to communicate the message,” says Kesler. “One of Liam’s great strengths is that ability to simplify things for his players, allowing them to apply it at the highest level. “He and his staff would spend time on individual improvements but he’s very task-oriented. He won’t spend hours in meetings. He’s very specific, with short meetings to the point. Then they go back on the pitch to create moments for players to showcase their talent. “They build confidence and then the players come back and ask for more from him. If you’re a younger player, then he’s an opportunity because he doesn’t just constructively criticise you as a coach, he puts you in a position to do what he asks of you in your own creative way. He doesn’t tell you exactly how to do it, he gives you the track for you to speed.” One of Chelsea’s leading attackers can attest to that. Liam Delap, who had worked with Walker in Derby’s academy, was loaned from Manchester City by Hull in the summer of 2023 and scored eight goals in 31 Championship appearances, reviving a young career that had failed to ignite during temporary spells at Stoke City and Preston North End. Ipswich Town saw enough in Delap’s time with Hull to spend £20million ($27m) to sign him the next season. “Liam Delap is a good example,” says Kesler. “He came to us and his confidence was shattered. He was doubting his ability but we knew he had the quality. Liam and his staff worked with him one-on-one in meetings to educate him. Liam is a good educator and he’s patient.” There are recurring themes in appraisals of Rosenior and prominent among them is his work developing young players. As well as Delap, Jaden Philogene (back to Aston Villa) and Jacob Greaves (to Ipswich Town) won Premier League moves after their one full season with Rosenior, while Liverpool’s Fabio Carvalho returned from his Hull loan to join Brentford in a £27.5m move. Rosenior’s popularity with younger players was clear and had been noted by Strasbourg’s owners, BlueCo. “He’s approachable and, as a human being, he’s a good person,” says Davies. “That matters because when you compare the time that me and Liam were coming through as players, it’s very different now. “The way you deal with young players now is to get down on a ground level and speak about the game, the tactics and clips. Liam’s personality leans towards that. Liam has still got that rocket in him but when he goes to ‘volume 10’, it comes across well. You know he means business when he gets to that. It’s a good balance.” Rosenior has shown other skills as a manager, too. There has been diplomacy when stuck in the middle of fans protesting against Strasbourg’s place in a multi-club ownership structure and a long-standing willingness to tackle racism. In the days that followed a nomination as the Championship’s manager of the year in April 2024, he was subjected to vile online abuse. “When people are saying it’s a token gesture and things like ‘monkey’ are being written, I have to say something in public,” Rosenior, whose father Leroy was awarded an MBE for tackling discrimination in sport, told BBC Radio Humberside. “It’s water off a duck’s back, but it hurts when my kids are bringing it to me.” Rosenior held up a banner that read “say no to racism” when winning the following Championship game away to Cardiff City. Rosenior will make his Chelsea bow in Saturday’s FA Cup third-round tie against Charlton Athletic — and that will be his first game in English football since taking charge of Hull’s 1-0 loss at Plymouth Argyle in May 2024. That final-day defeat snuffed out any hope of finishing in the Championship’s top six and led Acun Ilicali, Hull’s Turkish owner, to fire his head coach, believing their visions were “not aligned”. Rosenior was not short of interest before the 2024-25 campaign. There were talks with Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus before Rosenior exited the process, and with Burnley, who opted to appoint Scott Parker. Instead, it was an offer from figures he knew well that Rosenior grasped. Chelsea’s co-sporting director, Laurence Stewart, had been Hull’s head of performance analysis when Rosenior joined as a player in 2010, a position he held until leaving for Manchester City in a similar capacity four years later. Rosenior and Stewart were close throughout, spending hours in the director’s analysis room at the club’s training ground. Paul Winstanley, Chelsea’s other sporting director, had also seen Rosenior’s early coaching work first-hand when head of scouting at Brighton & Hove Albion, along with Sam Jewell, now Chelsea’s director of global recruitment. Strasbourg, owned by Chelsea’s parent company BlueCo, saw Rosenior as a natural fit, capable of developing the youngest squad in Europe’s top five divisions. And it worked out. Despite back-to-back defeats at the end of the season costing Strasbourg a place in the Champions League, qualification for the Conference League rewarded a campaign that included a 2-1 win at home to Paris Saint-Germain and a 1-1 draw at Marseille, which was attended by Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali. “There was a meticulous element in his preparation and how he wanted to play,” says Lee Darnbrough, Hull’s former head of recruitment. “He had a way of building up through the phases rather than going direct to the front. There was an insistence on playing from the back to invite teams on.” And a tactical flexibility. “There was a game when we played Sunderland away and we didn’t have any fit centre-forwards, so he played with two ‘No 10s’ (attacking midfielders) and two wingers, but his wingers stayed as strikers out wide,” adds Darnbrough. “That game ended 4-4. He found a solution within the squad and it caused the opposition a problem.” Part of last season’s successful Strasbourg team was Chelsea’s Brazilian midfielder Andrey Santos, who gave a glowing assessment of Rosenior when speaking at a press conference in November. “He’s amazing,” said the former Strasbourg loanee, as reported by the BBC. “I improved a lot with him. Our relationship is perfect.” Liam Rosenior and Chelsea’s Andrey Santos enjoyed an excellent relationship at StrasbourgSebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images Centre-back Mamadou Sarr and attacker Emmanuel Emegha are also set to be Chelsea players next season after 18 months working with Rosenior at Strasbourg, with a pathway between the two clubs — uncomfortably for some — all too apparent. What You Should Read Next Strasbourg fans on Liam Rosenior’s potential exit and comparisons with INEOS-owned Nice BlueCo's Strasbourg drew 1-1 with INEOS' Nice on Saturday – The Athletic spoke to supporters of both clubs about life in a multi-club model “He needs support and an environment to build a relationship with the players but when he builds it’s very tight,” says Kesler. “In Chelsea’s situation, Paul is there, Laurence is there, they all know him and have worked with him. He will have this support mechanism around him so it will help him to become successful.” Rosenior’s inexperience, though, inevitably adds risk to this next step. The scrutiny faced when in charge of Derby, Hull and Strasbourg will markedly intensify at Chelsea, as will the expectations on the back of Maresca’s reign, which included the Club World Cup and Conference League titles last season. Rosenior is yet to win a major honour, either as player or manager, but makes no secret of his ambitions. In an interview with The Athletic last season, his stated aim was to become England manager. “The longer I’ve worked (as a coach), the more I believe I can get there.” And here he is at the highest level. Chelsea manager. “It’s a great opportunity that he’d be silly to turn down,” says Davies, who played in Rosenior’s first game as a manager three and a half years ago. “He’s been striving for this since he was 30 years old and I’m sure he’ll give it all he can. Chelsea are now hiring coaches to play to a style and develop young players and I fully believe Liam can do that.” By Philip Buckingham Football Correspondent

Liam Rosenior insists he will not be a ‘yes man’ at Chelsea https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6957535/2026/01/09/liam-rosenior-Chelsea-charlton/ Liam Rosenior insists he has not been hired as Chelsea’s head coach because he is going to be a ‘yes man’. Rosenior, 41, was announced as Enzo Maresca’s permanent replacement on Tuesday, having spent the previous 18 months in charge of Strasbourg. Maresca “parted company” with Chelsea on January 1 after his relationship with the hierarchy had become untenable. Rosenior knows the structure of Chelsea well, having worked and communicated with the club’s senior figures on a regular basis during his spell in charge of Strasbourg. The Ligue 1 side are also controlled by Chelsea owner BlueCo. When asked if he will be able to be his own man at Stamford Bridge at a press conference ahead of Chelsea’s FA Cup third-round tie at Charlton Athletic, Rosenior replied: “I don’t think it is possible to ever be in this job and not be your own man. People will see through you straight away. “I will make the decisions at this football club, that is why I have been brought in. I understand, I am not an alien. I know what is being said. But there is no way you can be successful as a manager if you don’t make the decisions for yourself. The great thing for me is that I have experience of working in the set up. The guys have been nothing but supportive of me in Strasbourg.” What You Should Read Next Chelsea’s winners under Liam Rosenior – and why there will be so few losers Liam Rosenior’s appointment at Chelsea has been about continuity, but many players will be hoping their new coach can bring about change Rosenior was in the stands at Craven Cottage on Wednesday night as Chelsea fans chanted throughout against BlueCo, co-owner Behdad Eghbali and Clearlake Capital (which holds the majority stake). Pressed on how he can win them over, he said: “A club of this stature, fans want success and they have every right to want success now. Winning trophies is ingrained in the club’s history, winning titles and Champions Leagues. The fans should have those standards. “To win over the fans, I need to win over games of football. They need to see a team that represents them. We are trying to build something in a different way. I am very, very confident that in time we will show people why we are doing it this way. My job is to get the team in a place where clubs fear coming to Stamford Bridge and fans really look forward to every game we play. “When I went to Strasbourg, I was (seen) as a joke. They said my team would finish last and it was an impossible project, that I was a nobody from England. We finished three points off (qualifying for the) Champions League. The outside noise is just noise. I believe very strongly we can be successful here.” By Simon Johnson Chelsea Correspondent

Didier Drogba and his dressing-room intervention in Ivory Coast’s civil war https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6938718/2026/01/09/ivory-coast-didier-drogba-civil-war/ Didier Drogba leaves the presidential palace in October 2005 after a ceremony to celebrate World Cup qualification Kampbel/AFP via Getty Images “The one country in Africa with so many riches must not descend into war. Please lay down your weapons and hold elections. We want to have fun, so stop firing your guns.” This is not a speech from a political rally. Those words were uttered on television from a cramped dressing room inside a football stadium in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum after one of the biggest sporting achievements in the Ivory Coast’s history. In October 2005, the national team’s 3-1 victory over Sudan secured World Cup qualification for the first time. Instead of celebrating, Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, who went on to represent Montreal Impact and Phoenix Rising, stood in front of a camera with a microphone in his right hand. Surrounded by his team-mates — current Manchester City assistant coach Kolo Toure put his left arm around the striker’s shoulders — Drogba spoke about the civil war back home between president Laurent Gbagbo’s forces and rebel soldiers. In October 2021, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) claimed 750,000 people were forcibly displaced by the conflict between 2002 and 2007. Exact figures for the loss of life are difficult to find, but estimates range between 1,000 and 3,000 deaths. “Men and women of Ivory Coast. From the north, south, centre and west, we proved today that all Ivorians can coexist and play together with a shared aim — to qualify for the World Cup,” Drogba said. “We promised you that the celebrations would unite the people — today we beg you on our knees. Forgive. Forgive. Forgive.” Drogba, speaking in French, dropped to the floor with his team-mates and then started singing, “Stop firing your guns.” The video clip is only a minute long but its impact is still felt today. “Drogba is a great striker, who had an extraordinary career, and he is a good person,” Aruna Dindane, who scored twice for Ivory Coast against Sudan that day, tells The Athletic. “Something came out spontaneously and contributed to cohesion, to the good of great men.” The origins of the first Ivorian civil war can be traced back to the death of Felix Houphouet-Boigny in 1993. Houphoeut-Boigny was the country’s first president after gaining independence from France in 1960 and he remained in power until his death. Houphouet-Boigny helped Ivory Coast’s economy grow significantly by scaling up the production of cocoa, coffee, coconuts and pineapples. Henri Konan Bedie, Houphouet-Boigny’s successor, served as president for six years until he was removed by a military coup and replaced by Robert Guei. Bedie stoked tensions during his reign by introducing a law that prohibited people from holding important government positions if they were born outside Ivory Coast. A candidate’s parents needed to be born in the country and to have lived there for at least five years before an election. This rule prevented Alassane Ouattara, who served as the prime minister under Houphouet-Boigny, from running for office in the 1995 presidential election because his father grew up in Burkina Faso. Bedie’s actions angered large sections of the public in the northern parts of Ivory Coast who had migrated from Mali and Burkina Faso. Ouattara was barred from the presidential elections in 2000, which Guei lost to Gbagbo. Guei sacked the electoral commission and tried to announce himself as the winner, which triggered violent protests that led to the deaths of more than 350 people. Supporters of Ouattara’s party, Rally of Republicans (RDR), clashed with Guei’s followers and Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI). Gbagbo introduced new laws that further restricted the rights of immigrants and impacted others living in the north. In September 2002, troops revolted when the government tried to demobilise them. They attacked three cities, including Abidjan, gaining control of Korhogo and Bouake. They were later identified as part of the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI), which was led by Guillaume Soro. “The country was divided,” Lyn Kouadio, who is from Ivory Coast and a researcher at University College Oxford specialising in Western African studies, tells The Athletic. “The southern part, from Bouake, was under government control. There was a buffer zone where French soldiers were and then the north was held by rebel groups. Yamoussoukro is the political capital but everything happens in Abidjan. It was about conquering ground. “Every type of (violence) you can imagine was happening in Bouake. It was horrible. People in the regions north of Bouake had to flee. They walked down from Bouake to Abidjan (around 235 miles, 380 km). They left for Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Ghana. It was a mass exodus. “Bouake was the second-largest city in terms of population and economic activity. It had become an industrial base, especially around textiles, because it is close to the political capital and easy to get to. This is important because of the internal displacement that followed. (The conflict) accelerated the growth of certain kinds of slums in Abidjan because people had to move their families (from Bouake) and find ways to carry on living. Even now, lots of people live in Abidjan but work in Bouake. There is a sense they are scarred by the violence. Western media reported that 3,000 people died but the number is much higher than that.” In December 2002, the MPCI joined forces with two other rebel factions to form the New Forces of Ivory Coast (FNCI). The following month, figures from the government, FNCI, opposition political parties and the United Nations met in Paris to sign a peace agreement called the Linas-Marcoussis Accord. Gbagbo would lead a power-sharing government with representation from across the political spectrum. The war was officially declared over in July 2003 but violent outbursts continued. Against this backdrop, a talented generation of footballers emerged, including brothers Kolo and Yaya Toure, Didier Zokora, Emmanuel Eboue and, of course, Drogba. He joined Chelsea from Marseille in 2004 for £24million (then $43.9m) and won multiple trophies with them, including four Premier League titles. He scored the winning penalty in the 2012 Champions League final against Bayern Munich. He captained his country and is their all-time top goalscorer. Ivory Coast were eliminated at the group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in 2000 and 2002, while they failed to qualify in 2004. However, heading into the last round of qualifying games for the 2006 World Cup, they were a point behind group leaders Cameroon. Between 1994 and 2022, only five African teams could qualify for each edition. If the Democratic Republic of Congo win their play-off final in March, there will be 10 African sides at this summer’s expanded 48-team tournament. Ivory Coast needed to beat Sudan and hope Cameroon dropped points against Egypt. Mohamed El Shawky’s 79th-minute strike earned Egypt a draw. Kanga Akale put Ivory Coast ahead and Dindane scored twice after half-time to seal a 3-1 victory over Sudan. “We did everything possible to win the match but it was difficult because we did not control our destiny,” says Dindane, who played for Portsmouth and now works with Ivory Coast’s Football Federation (FIFCI). “There was a glimmer of hope that if Cameroon drew at home and we won in Sudan then we would qualify for the first time. We clung to that and the unthinkable happened. “I was lucky enough to score twice and it gave me immense pleasure. I did my part that day and so did my team-mates.” Didier Drogba receives recognition from Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo in October 2005Kampbel/AFP via Getty Images Drogba finished the qualifying campaign with nine goals, behind only Togo’s Emmanuel Adebayor (10), but he is remembered for what happened in the dressing room afterwards. “It was the first time we had a conflict of this magnitude,” Dindane adds. “Everyone, directly or indirectly, was impacted. May God protect all countries in the world, especially in Africa, from experiencing this situation because they were difficult things to deal with. “We prayed together and thanked God for allowing us to win. We danced. We celebrated but in a sombre way. I don’t know if (Drogba) planned the speech but it was natural. I believed in (his message).” Souleymane Coulibaly idolised Drogba during his childhood. Coulibaly grew up in Abidjan but moved to Italy in 2009 to live with his father due to the unrest caused by the civil war. Coulibaly was 11 when Ivory Coast qualified for the 2006 World Cup and he remembers watching the game with his grandmother. “What Drogba did was amazing,” Coulibaly, who earned a move to Tottenham Hotspur after scoring nine goals in four games for Ivory Coast at the Under-17 World Cup in 2011, tells The Athletic. “He is an example of a good human being because lots of people (players) think only about football. Outside of football, you need to be kind, respectful and responsible. He gave everything for the country. It was unbelievable and I cannot forget that. “Lots of footballers love him — even the generation after me are inspired by Didier. Any African, they are all inspired by him.” Christian Manfredini was born in Ivory Coast but moved to Italy, where he was adopted at the age of five. The midfielder was called up for the first time a few months after the infamous game against Sudan but earned his only cap in a friendly against Israel in November 2008. “Drogba was special,” Manfredini, who now runs a coaching school and commentates on Italian lower-league games for RAI, says. “He made a positive impression on me. He knew I came from Italy. He used to visit Milan and so spoke a bit of Italian. Just two or three words which put me at ease. I only knew him from watching TV, so to see him up close was a joy. “When there is a war going on, you always talk about it with your friends. It touched me personally because I was born there. I spoke about it with team-mates, hoping it would be over quickly. It was good to see someone that important and influential try to improve things for people in Ivory Coast.” Drogba’s speech was powerful but it did not stop the war. A few months after qualifying for the World Cup, four people died in the city of Guiglo after protesters attacked a United Nations base. In March 2007, a peace agreement was signed in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and Gbagbo declared the war officially over, not for the first time, the following month. That June, Ivory Coast beat Madagascar 5-0 in an AFCON qualifier held in Bouake. A month later, Gbagbo returned to the city after a five-year absence and set fire to a cache of weapons with new prime minister, and former rebel leader, Soro. Ivory Coast held presidential elections for the first time in a decade in 2010. Ouattara won, after finally being allowed to compete, but the results were disputed and violence broke out again. Around half a million people fled, mainly to Liberia, and 3,000 died. According to Human Rights Watch, armed forces on both sides executed civilians, while more than 150 women were raped. Gbagbo was captured in April 2011 and went on trial at the International Criminal Court for war crimes. He was acquitted in 2019 and that decision was upheld two years later. Ouattara, who turned 84 last week, has remained in charge of Ivory Coast since he won in 2010 and was re-elected for a fourth term in October. Before the 2020 elections, Ouattara claimed the two-term limit for presidents did not apply to him because Ivory Coast changed its constitution in 2016. He attended the AFCON 2023 final, when Ivory Coast beat Nigeria in the stadium named after him. Drogba, who runs his own charitable foundation and is regularly spotted at FIFA events, introduced the trophy to the crowd before kick-off. Ouattara lifted it on stage with head coach Emerse Fae, who featured alongside Drogba against Sudan, and then captain Max Gradel. There was one person who Ivory Coast’s squad wanted to celebrate with more than anyone else, though. Wilfried Singo dashed over to the bald man in an orange shirt who was shouting and swearing with excitement on the side of the pitch. Odilon Kossounou, Jonathan Bamba, Jean-Philippe Krasso, Nicolas Pepe and Christian Kouame all hugged him. “Drogba matters to this day,” Kouadio says. “People know him and remember him. He is loved in a big brother-esque kind of way. He is a very important national icon.” By Jay Harris

Liam Rosenior, Chelsea and the benefits and risks of hiring within a multi-club model https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6957165/2026/01/10/liam-rosenior-Chelsea-multi-club-model/ Liam Rosenior begins his Chelsea tenure with an FA Cup tie away at Charlton Athletic this weekend. If the 41-year-old had any doubts about the scale of the job he’s taking on, it was made clear during Wednesday night’s 2-1 defeat by west London neighbours Fulham at Craven Cottage. Chelsea’s travelling supporters made their feelings known about the club’s owners, with chants against Clearlake Capital and Behdad Eghbali. A protest has also been organised for Chelsea’s next home match in the Premier League, against Brentford on January 17. Against that hostile backdrop, it puts the entire BlueCo project and Rosenior, hired from the same position at Chelsea’s French sister club Strasbourg, under even greater scrutiny. But unlike most new head coaches, his transition should not be too stark. The Athletic spoke to a number of figures within the game for their view on how Rosenior and Chelsea could benefit from hiring within a multi-club organisation. “One of the core ideas behind having a multi-club organisation is the efficiencies you can drive from having shared IP (intellectual property) across the group, but also having pathways for talent,” Omar Chaudhuri, chief intelligence officer at sports data firm Twenty First Group, tells The Athletic. “It’s one of the big hypotheses that most of the multi-club groups buy into, although it’s obviously much harder in practice than it is in principle. It’s often very difficult to lift people and put them in new environments, even if you’ve got a plan on paper. “I suppose the one group that’s done it really well is the Red Bull group, where you’ve got a number of coaches who have coached at multiple Red Bull clubs, either as head coaches or as youth coaches. And what you’ve got there is a very, very clear playing philosophy, which means talent is more transportable across the different organisations. I think the moment you start to not have the philosophy as clearly ingrained, then the benefits begin to diminish a little bit.” Within that Red Bull multi-club model, players and coaches have routinely moved from one team to another. That has included current Canada men’s head coach Jesse Marsch, whose previous career took him from head coach of the New York Red Bulls, to assistant coach at RB Leipzig, to head coach of Red Bull Salzburg, to Leipzig head coach (where he struggled) before another tough stint managing Leeds United, which came before Red Bull bought a minority stake in the now Premier League club in 2024. Meanwhile, Marco Rose, who was sacked by Leipzig last year, also previously worked at Salzburg. Gerhard Struber, who is currently head coach of Bristol City in England’s second-tier Championship, previously joined Salzburg from New York Red Bulls. “One of the most important elements is developing the coaches, because they are the ones in charge of implementing the playing style,” Marsch told ESPN. Marsch managed New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Salzburg and RB LeipzigStuart Franklin/Getty Images City Football Group has also tried this approach, albeit with varying degrees of success. The likes of Domenec Torrent, Nick Cushing, Patrick Kisnorbo and Erick Mombaerts have moved between clubs in that stable. Kisnorbo, for example, won the A-League in Australia with Melbourne City, but then had bruising spells in charge of France’s Troyes, winning just three of his 40 matches, which resulted in relegation from Ligue 1, and Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan. In a previous interview with The Athletic, Des Buckingham, who coached at Melbourne and managed fellow CFG side Mumbai City in India, before winning promotion from League One, England’s third division, with hometown club Oxford United in 2024, said: “We couldn’t play like Man City, but the principles we had were very similar. The idea was that if you were to put the TV on, you’d be able to work out it was a CFG team that was playing.” Chaudhuri says it was often tricky to predict how well a coach would fare based solely on their previous experience, but a better indicator was analysing the success of their predecessor. He says the most important factor was the existing structure and organisation in place. “Manchester United is a great example of that in the last 10 years,” Chaudhuri explains. “Every coach that has come in has had a pretty impressive CV, but they’ve all done as badly as the previous guy. “But at a club like Brentford, for example, where Keith Andrews comes in (as head coach this season), he didn’t have a particularly impressive CV but has done really well because the previous guy (Thomas Frank) had done well. The same with Brighton and Southampton back in the day. We call it organisational intelligence. The best clubs have this kind of intelligence that enables them to succession-plan and have long-term success. “The predictor of how well Rosenior or anyone else will do in a job when they go in is going to be very much around the environment that they’re stepping into and how well they’re supported.” Citing the example of Andrews, who currently has Brentford fifth in the Premier League in what is his first crack at management after several jobs as an assistant, Chaudhuri says there could be parallels drawn between his appointment and Rosenior’s up the road at neighbours Chelsea. “The club knew him (Andrews was previously their set-piece coach) really well, understood how he communicates, how he leads, how he sets up sessions, how he responds to pressure. Therefore, it was less of a risk to put him into a head-coach role when they already knew him,” he says. “And in some respects, having someone within a multi-club group, it’s the same thing, of course, a slightly different environment, different club, but in principle, you’re mitigating a lot of those risks that you just don’t really know about before someone comes through the door.” Jordan Gardner, an investment strategy consultant at Twenty First Group and former chief executive of Danish club Helsingor, agrees. “I think it makes a lot of sense, because the whole point of a multi-club model is to capture the synergies between the clubs, so ideally the clubs would be playing a similar style, recruiting the same players, everyone ideally, on a piece of paper, would be on the same page,” he tells The Athletic. “So the idea of bringing a manager from Strasbourg to Chelsea is that, theoretically, there should be no change in continuity. It should be very consistent, rather than bringing in a manager from outside who plays a completely different style. “You saw what happened with Celtic this season. They brought in a manager (Wilfried Nancy) from MLS, who could not adjust quickly. He couldn’t implement his own style quickly enough, so after a month, he was sacked. So the idea of hiring a manager within an existing multi-club structure is to avoid those challenges.” Rosenior is familiar with three of Chelsea’s five-person sporting leadership team, having worked with Paul Winstanley and Sam Jewell as a player at Brighton & Hove Albion, and Laurence Stewart in his first full-time management role at Hull City. He addressed this in a previous interview with The Athletic, when he was still head coach at Strasbourg: “When you meet good people in your football journey, you keep in touch. They told me they were really interested in me coming here. It was a no-brainer to come.” Rosenior was in charge of Strasbourg for a year and a halfFrederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images Chelsea have said that the benefits of a multi club structure allow them to test coaches in real conditions, observe them over time and see how they handle pressure. They said it also created alignment on things like style of play and use of data and performance metrics. They pointed out that Rosenior had developed a clear tactical identity and improved young players during his time at Strasbourg, which meant he was deserving of his appointment at Chelsea. “He already knows the group structure and the upcoming talents at Strasbourg that might be able to one day play at Chelsea, such as Mike Penders,” Simon Van Kerckhoven, founder of Zurafa Football Capital, who advised in CFG’s purchase of Belgian club Lommel in 2020, tells The Athletic. “You know exactly the personality of the coach, you know his strong and weak points. You know how he treats players, how he faces challenges, how he deals with his staff members, so there are advantages to doing that. “However, going from Strasbourg to Chelsea is a big step up, with a different level of players. The Premier League is a different type of competition, it’s not just about talent development. Fans are expecting results on a weekly basis, so there’s a lot of pressure there.” Rosenior made reference to that point himself ahead of the Fulham match on Wednesday, which he watched from the stands, next to Chelsea co-owner Eghbali. “Chelsea’s built on winning, I’m aware of that, the fans should be proud of the history of this club,” he told Sky Sports. “I want to entertain as well, but the game at this level is about winning.” Gardner agrees the jump from Strasbourg to Chelsea puts him on another level: “On a piece of paper, and conceptually it makes a lot of sense, but is that actually what’s happening? Is this new manager going to come in and play the exact style, be on the same page and have the right mentality? Is he going to be able to make the jump from Ligue 1 to the pressures of the Premier League? That’s a totally different conversation.” Elsewhere, a senior figure at a club in the French top flight, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, feels the Rosenior hire was a “risky choice” from Chelsea. “The benefit is that they know him, which in many respects is better than taking a coach who is outside your galaxy,” the senior figure, who worked within a multi-club structure, tells The Athletic. “They have created a relationship with him. But it does surprise me. “At a big club like Chelsea, he will have to get results quickly, and if he doesn’t, then the management will need to support him significantly against the crowd, who aren’t that positive about the management of the club. On top of that, it has also created instability at Strasbourg. “I also don’t think Strasbourg are doing that well this season. Last season, they did a good job, even if they overperformed their expected points. I’m not convinced by this season. They started well, but for the last month they haven’t been great. They spent a crazy amount of money in the summer. It’s not like they (Chelsea) are taking a coach that is doing an amazing job. It’s a risk.” By Tom Burrows Football News Reporter

He's got a tricky start to deal with. Arsenal cup semi final, Brentford, Pafos, Palace (away), Napoli (away).

i'm fed up with all this fucking negativity, let's give the guy a chance, judge him on results and how he handles the players. Lets judge him on performances and not on what you think he might be.

Pre/Post Match Discussion, Live Chat & Analysis Saturday Jan 10th, 2026 The Village 8 PM UK

He would have clapped them in irons and strung them to the rock of Gibraltar