I think these words below will resonate with many Chelsea fans really, because I think many will be feeling this way.
With fresh protests against the owners planned, and chants of Roman Abramovich being sang from the away end at Manchester City last night, the feelings are clear amongst the Blues fan base.
Whilst most of us, like myself, will be fully backing, supporting, and behind Liam Rosenior – there are also many question marks over hie experience and calibre coming in.
I said yesterday, I like Liam. I think he’s smart, he speaks very well, he seems to be very good at man-management, and is tactically acute. But making the big step up to Chelsea comes with a lot of baggage. Nobody knows whether a raw manager can take it on. Some can, some cannot. Only time will tell. So obviously, fans will have real concerns and question marks.
‘I was a big fan of Enzo Maresca as a manager,’ Carragher said on Sky Sports. ‘When he came up against some of the biggest managers in this league, he more than held his own.
‘But I could see this coming: you can’t start speaking out of turn at any club, but especially Chelsea who have so many sporting directors.
‘As soon as the results started to deteriorate in the last few weeks, he didn’t turn up at a press conference, this was inevitable.
‘Now Maresca’s gone, the focus will be on the club and the ownership. I’ve been quite critical of the way they’ve gone about it over the last three-and-a-half years.
‘If you look at the timeline of managers: they inherited Thomas Tuchel, a Champions League-winning manager. It now looks like they’re going to inherit Liam Rosenior, who has managed Derby, Hull and Strasbourg.
‘It’s a great opportunity for him, but Chelsea Football Club and their supporters are not used to those appointments.
‘They are used to Jose Mourinho, Guus Hiddink, Antonio Conte – big-name managers coming to make a huge impact on their club. I don’t see Rosenior doing that.
‘His target will be to make sure they get into the Champions League next season and they’re more than capable of doing that. We expect it to be five Premier League teams [that qualify for the Champions League] as it was last season.
‘But I don’t think it’s an appointment that is going to put Chelsea on to win a Premier League title or a Champions League trophy, and that’s what Chelsea should be aspiring for and that’s what the supporters have been used to over the last 20 years.
‘That’s not a lack of respect of a criticism for Liam Rosenior, he’s still a young man and he’s on a journey to be a top coach one day.
‘For me, it’s just a job that’s probably going to come too early to have the success that Chelsea as a football club should expect.’
The interesting thing here of course is that Carragher says he’s a big fan of Maresca, who was even less experienced than Rosenior is…… Hmmm.
Gary Neville has also questioned the impact Rosenior will have on an already inexperienced squad.
‘You genuinely can’t win anything with kids. That’s a fact. Alan Hansen was absolutely right,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.
‘Chelsea need some experience in and around the club. If you have young players on the pitch I also think you need an experienced manager.
‘But it looks like they are going to appoint another young manager again. I just think young players need some authority and guidance around them.’
As always with these two, I certainly agree with some points made here, but not all of it. I actually think Rosenior might end up surprising a few people, including these two!
Let me know your general thoughts on Rosenior and the comments from Carragher and Neville, in the comments section below.
