Rosenior already succeeding where Maresca failed as Chelsea chiefs sweet-talked into January action | OneFootball

“We need a central defender. We are looking for an internal solution but, as I said, the club know exactly what I think,” Enzo Maresca said in August on the back of Levi Colwill’s knee injury which would keep him out for the majority of the season.

It was the first time the puppet pulled on the strings held by the Chelsea hierarchy, preceding his “worst 48 hours” gambit in December which was the beginning of the end for Maresca, who was shown the Stamford Bridge door having all but screamed ‘I’m a real boy!’ before his exit was sealed.

Reports in the build up to the January transfer window, before Maresca was mutually consented from the club on New Year’s Day, suggested that while co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart were looking at signing a new centre-back in 2026, along with a midfielder and versatile attacker, potential targets were being lined up for the end of the season.

Maresca would have to wait, but that’s apparently not the case for Liam Rosenior, who replaced the Italian at the helm last week and has so far overseen the 5-1 victory over Charlton in the FA Cup third round and the 3-2 defeat to Arsenal in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final.

Rosenior made three changes to his back four in the game against the Gunners as Mikel Arteta’s side pounced on their laboured and uncertain build up from the back. He’s quickly come to the same realisation as his predecessor that his collection of centre-backs don’t match the quality of players ahead of them.

But while Maresca was denied a new centre-back after Real Madrid beat them to the signing of Dean Huijsen from Bournemouth, Rosenior appears to have sweet-talked the BlueCo bosses into accelerating a move to bolster his back line.

The Telegraph claim Chelsea are ‘ready to make a move for a new defender in the remaining weeks of the January transfer window’ and renege on their ‘plan to sell at least one defender to accommodate a new face in the summer’.

They are ‘prepared to carry an extra body for the remaining four months of the season if they can strike a deal for the right man’, with the report citing 20-year-old Rennes star Jérémy Jacquet and 21-year-old Jacobo Ramón, who only joined Como from Real Madrid in the summer, as potential options for Rosenior.

On the atmosphere at Chelsea following Rosenior’s first few days in charge, one well-placed source told The Telegraph: “The mood has been really good since Liam came in. Not everyone had been entirely happy, but there has been a notable shift and Liam’s communication skills have been really evident.”

While there never appeared to be any real communication issues between Maresca and the Chelsea players – most had a very good relationship with him – the Italian’s undoing was his inability, or lack of will, to manage (a combination of “man” and “age”, if you weren’t aware) upwards.

Rosenior’s greatest challenge will be in getting what he wants from Winstanley, Stewart and those above them while appearing to kowtow to those powers that be.

He’s off to a great start in that regard, and we suspect the Chelsea higher ups are as open as football club chiefs could possibly be to the mood boards, buzzwords and self-improvement mantras that are sure to be utilised to the nth degree by a modern manager with Jake Humphrey dialoguing in one earbud and Steven Bartlett chatting equal amounts of sh*t in the other.

Is Rosenior as good a coach as Maresca? Don’t know. But he’s got the schmoozing down to a tee and that will be a hugely significant factor in determining his success at Chelsea.