Rosenior to ‘lose’ £11m after Chelsea axe as Luis Enrique drops Man Utd ‘hint’ | OneFootball

Chelsea have sacked Liam Rosenior but while that’s clearly the biggest story in town it’s far from the only one.

There are still clicks to be mined out of the Man United managerial vacancy that technically still exists, clout to be farmed by mentioning Jurgen Klopp for no real reason, and above all else? What does this mean for Spurs.

And through it all you have the Daily Express being just enormously Daily Express.

Terry’s All Gold

The biggest news in football this morning? It’s all here – as ever, quite literally – in a Daily Mail headline.

Mediawatch can confirm we too have yet to receive a call from Chelsea interim boss, and we’ve taken charge of exactly the same number of professional games of football as John Terry. It really is very frustrating.

It is and will remain Mediawatch’s very favourite part of the Chelsea manager sacking ritual: John Terry being astonished anew that yet again he hasn’t simply been instantly handed the job for being John Terry.

Saurus coming

Mediawatch also very much enjoyed Sean Davis’ withering yet unintentionally hilarious assessment of his former team-mate Liam Rosenior.

While it is an undeniably fair assessment of a manager ultimately far too performative for his own good, there is nevertheless something magnificent there about the thing that Davis means – yet also needs – is a thesaurus.

Klipp Klopp

Not for the first time, a Daily Express headline has Mediawatch banging its head on the desk.

Do we really have to do this every time any Premier League job comes up? Apparently yes, yes we do.

He said he probably wouldn’t manage anyone again, and that above all else he absolutely definitely wouldn’t manage any Premier League club other than Liverpool. Absolutely nothing that’s happened since he said that has given even the slightest indication he might have softened that stance.

We can just about tolerate bringing this up in a Lloyd Christmas ‘so you’re telling me there’s a chance?’ fashion about the Liverpool job, but really not sure we need to go over this every time another manager gets kicked out of some shambling Big Six operation or other.

Yes. A good and obvious and widely known reason that renders these stories entirely unnecessary.

We literally all know this.

Hint condition

Chelsea, of course, not the only Big Six job currently up for (permanent) grabs this summer as uncertainty remains over the long-term future of Michael Carrick’s qualified success as an interim with Manchester United.

The Express all over this one as well, albeit not at this point by saying Jurgen Klopp has made his position clear on the Man United job. Small mercies there, at least, but this isn’t much better.

Luis Enrique’s big hint about Manchester United is… talking about his summer plans with his current club PSG.

We’re just going to go right ahead and assume you don’t need us to tell you the precise number of times he mentioned Manchester United or Michael Carrick when dropping his massive Manchester United hint.

Taxing questions

Mediawatch always enjoys these headlines.

They’re often sadly not from football and thus of no tangible value to us. They’re more often about your golfers or tennisers and their prize money after winning whatever the big events are for your golfers or tennisers.

Because yes, as you’ve likely already guessed, this isn’t a story about break clauses or anything like that which might prevent Rosenior getting his bumper £24m six-year Chelsea contract paid out in full, but a good old-fashioned right-wing whinge about millionaires having to pay tax.

The choice of ‘lose’ in that headline really is so revealing.

The Express go on to be furious about this, nominally on Rosenior’s behalf.

Of course, they are not at all actually angry about Rosenior specifically having to pay this. Let’s face it, the amount he’s getting paid for the work he’s actually done easily surpasses the tabloid threshold for him to have ‘trousered’ rather than ‘earned’ or even ‘pocketed’ that cash.

But any chance to express goggled disbelief that millionaires have to pay tax must always be taken, even if that money was initially ‘trousered’ by a chancer.

Spurred on

You’d think if there were one outlet that didn’t have to try and generate a spurious local angle to news of Chelsea sacking another Chelsea manager at Chelsea, it would be football.london. You know, what with Chelsea still very much being in London and still just about technically a football club.

But no. For there is this:

If your initial reaction is “Probably not that much” then you would largely be right. Largely.

But not entirely. There are still some pretty major impacts.

Chelsea have to play Nottingham Forest. They aren’t really in the relegation battle any more, but fine.

Chelsea do also have to play Tottenham. At Stamford Bridge. Are Chelsea more or less likely to win a fixture they pretty much always win anyway under an interim manager against a relegation-haunted Spurs than they would have been under Rosenior? Mediawatch is genuinely unsure here, but we’re certainly not seeing a massive impact and the words “Doctor” and “Tottenham” are flashing away in our heads in all neon.

The biggest impact really might be that Chelsea might be a tiny bit more likely to beat Leeds in the FA Cup final now their players might not be in open revolt any more. If that happens then Spurs’ trip for their annual defeat at Stamford Bridge will have to move from FA Cup final weekend.