Next Chelsea manager: Ranking the 5 most likely replacements for Liam Rosenior | OneFootball

Chelsea appeared to have great faith in Liam Rosenior when they appointed him as Enzo Maresca’s successor in early January, handing him a massive contract that runs to 2032.

But it’s been a difficult start to life for Rosenior, with the Blues on the brink of Champions League elimination. There have even been reports that the board are already expressing private doubts over his future, and pressure will inevitably grow if Chelsea continue to struggle for results in the Premier League.

We’ve taken a look at five of the most realistic appointments that Chelsea could make should they decide to make yet another change in the dugout.

5. Gary O’Neil

Hands up. We’ve simply put two and two together here.

‘Who’s currently managing Strasbourg?’ will always give us a name for a shortlist as long as Chelsea operate in this multi-club model. It’s how they landed on the current fella.

We’d love to see the scenes of unrest within the fanbase, though. They’re just about stomaching the guy who was sacked by Hull City, but binning him off for a guy sacked by Wolves and Bournemouth might just be a step too far.

A tough sell, to put it mildly.

4. Jose Mourinho

There have been the odd murmurings of Mourinho returning for a third stint at Stamford Bridge, but everything about him seems anathema to the club’s current identity under BlueCo.

Sixty-three years old. His best days were over a decade ago. He has absolutely nothing to do with Brighton. And famously never one to shirk a fight with the board.

Bear with us, but paradoxically that’s why he might actually be a viable candidate.

If things go south spectacularly enough to dispense with Rosenior so soon, it would raise the heat on figures higher up in the hierarchy, like Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart.

Mourinho would represent the ‘rip it up and start again’ approach. Get rid of the small army of sporting directors, change the whole structure, and buy some time with the fans by bringing back a club legend.

Maybe it’s just crazy enough to work? Almost certainly not. But we’d love to rubberneck.

3. Sebastian Hoeness

We’ve got to include one fashionable, slightly leftfield, continental option, don’t we?

The German’s name has been mentioned for Liverpool if Arne Slot is giving his marching orders. Intuitively, that seems like a pretty natural fit with how the Merseyside club currently do things.

Chelsea would be daft not to at least ask the question. The 43-year-old has established a reputation as one of the most promising coaches in Europe, having worked wonders over the past three seasons at Strasbourg.

Offers for bigger jobs are inevitable. And given who his uncle is, you’d imagine that the Bayern job is his whenever it next becomes available.

Pep Guardiola leaving Manchester City, opening up the chance for Vincent Kompany to return home, could set those wheels in motion. That cushy number would surely be more appealing than the chaos of Chelsea, right?

2. Andoni Iraola

We’d be amazed if Iraola isn’t managing a ‘big six’ club next season, given that up to five of them could be in the market and he’s out of contract in the summer.

You watch his excellent Bournemouth side and can’t escape the feeling that he could do something special with better players. Today’s equivalent of Mauricio Pochettino at Southampton.

While Oliver Glasner might have talked himself out of a big job with his sulky ‘everything is terrible’ schtick, Iraola stoically getting on with it after Bournemouth sold three of his first-choice back four must surely appeal.

Fabian Hurzeler isn’t pulling up any trees at Brighton, so we can’t see Chelsea pulling their classic manoeuvre, but the Spaniard feels like the closest analogue out there.

Iraola strikes us as an excellent company man, although the flipside of that is whether he commands the force of personality for an elite-level side. We’ve seen how the likes of Graham Potter have been chewed up and spat out.

1. Filipe Luis

We take those reports from Brazil suggesting a mix-up on whether BlueCo had offered the Brazilian the Chelsea or Strasbourg job with a pinch of salt. It just smells a bit too on the nose.

But there could certainly be something in Flamengo getting the hump over him sounding out European clubs.

The job he did at Flamengo, delivering seven trophies in 18 months, including the Copa Libertadores, and masterminding a win over Chelsea at the Club World Cup, makes him one of the most highly sought-after coaches around.

It’s an unexpected bonus that he happens to be available. And a proven track record of working with top South American talent ticks a big box, given Chelsea’s recruitment model.

The former left-back’s fringe stint at Stamford Bridge was forgettable enough, but call it unfinished business?