• Chelsea are holding advanced discussions with Xabi Alonso to become their new head coach
• The former Bayer Leverkusen boss would replace Liam Rosenior at Stamford Bridge
• The Blues hope to confirm the appointment after this weekend’s FA Cup final
• Alonso had also been linked with a return to Liverpool but the Reds will keep Arne Slot
• The Spaniard wants specific guarantees before he commits to the London club

Chelsea Football Club are moving quickly to secure Xabi Alonso as their next permanent manager. The Premier League side have stepped up negotiations with the Spanish tactician in recent days.

The West London club dismissed Liam Rosenior last month. They now view Alonso as the ideal candidate to take charge at Stamford Bridge.

Earlier this week, reports suggested the Blues had approached several managers. Andoni Iraola, Marco Silva and Oliver Glasner were all on their shortlist. However, Alonso has emerged as the clear favourite for the position.

The two parties have held talks for a number of weeks. Sources indicate that the 44-year-old will only accept the role if the club meets certain conditions. These assurances relate to his control over team matters.

Chelsea plan to make the announcement public after the FA Cup final against Manchester City. The club did not want any news to distract from the important match at Wembley.

Alonso was previously connected with a move to Liverpool. The midfielder spent five successful years at Anfield during his playing career. However, the Merseyside club have decided to stand by their current manager Arne Slot. The Dutch coach has faced criticism after a disappointing season, but he will keep his job for now.

The situation at Liverpool could change if they fail to qualify for the Champions League. Despite this, Chelsea are confident they can win the race for Alonso’s signature.

• Chelsea have lost five Premier League games in a row without scoring for the first time since 1912.
• Owners accept appointing rookie coach Liam Rosenior was an error; an experienced replacement is now wanted.
• Senior players question dressing-room culture and call for veteran leaders to steady a young, unsettled squad.

Chelsea’s bold decision to hand the reins to 41-year-old Liam Rosenior has collapsed in spectacular fashion. After a bright opening, the Blues have slumped to five consecutive league defeats without finding the net, leaving the club nearer the bottom half than the top four.

Co-owner Behdad Eghbali cut a gloomy figure at Brighton’s Amex Stadium as the Seagulls eased to another win over the west-London side. Rosenior, apologising to travelling fans at full-time, later criticised his players in public, yet insiders say the dressing room had already drifted beyond his reach.

The defeat underlined a wider problem: Chelsea’s attempt to copy Brighton’s data-driven model without the same off-pitch architecture. While the recruitment staff have signed a raft of promising youngsters, the squad lacks the guidance of seasoned professionals like Brighton’s Danny Welbeck or James Milner. Enzo Fernández, recently linked with Real Madrid, wore the captain’s armband on Tuesday, a move that raised eyebrows after he was dropped only weeks earlier for openly flirting with an exit.

Discipline has nosedived. Marc Cucurella’s barber leaked the starting XI on social media, Wesley Fofana reacted angrily to a substitution against Manchester United, and red cards for dissent have mounted. Sources say Spanish-speaking players never warmed to Rosenior’s methods, and his call to drop Robert Sánchez for Filip Jörgensen in the Champions League back-fired when the understudy’s error cost a crucial goal against Paris Saint-Germain.

Chelsea have not kept a league clean sheet since January and have scored only once in eight games. Injuries are rising and the attack looks short of ideas. Board members now accept that a first-time head coach was ill-equipped to manage a squad of expensive internationals.

The club will target a proven manager this summer. Names admired inside Stamford Bridge include Como’s Cesc Fàbregas, Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola and Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso, yet candidates will want guarantees about the sporting structure and European qualification. Failure to reach the Champions League would tighten a budget already strained by losses of £262.4 million.

Rosenior’s exit feels inevitable. He departs with his reputation bruised but not broken; the bigger reckoning falls on the owners who threw him into one of Europe’s most demanding jobs without a safety net.

• Liam Rosenior has left Chelsea after just 93 days, the shortest reign in the club’s modern history.
• BlueCo’s model treats coaches like replaceable apps, angering fans who see tradition being sold off.
• Kenyan viewers on Showmax and ESPN now joke that Chelsea feel like a ‘football video game with no controller’.

Chelsea have shown Liam Rosenior the exit door after only 93 days, turning his six-year January contract into expensive confetti.

The 40-year-old English coach won only two of 12 matches and saw his side score one league goal in two months. Yet supporters inside Stamford Bridge and watching in Nairobi sports bars blame the owners, not the rookie boss.

“They hire a teacher, burn the textbooks, then sack the teacher for bad results,” said Washington Ochieng, who runs a Chelsea fan page in Mombasa. “We are tired of being a science experiment.”

Since the American-led BlueCo takeover in 2022, the club has spent more than Sh120 billion on new players and fired three managers. Data models, not football people, now pick the squad. Staff speak of ‘talent portfolios’ and ‘high-upside assets’ instead of defenders and strikers.

Rosenior’s last game, a lifeless 3-0 loss at Brighton on Tuesday, felt like the end. TV cameras caught him staring at the turf while Seagulls fans sang “You’ve lost the soul of Chelsea.”

Inside the dressing room, players were said to be ‘confused by the weekly rotation’ and upset that senior pros had no voice in tactics. One source told Kenya Football Weekly that team talks were ‘like a university lecture with no final exam date’.

Co-owner Todd Boehly, who acted as an unofficial sporting director during his first months, has previously told investors he wants Chelsea to become a ‘global tech platform’. The idea is to use Premier League rights to power streaming, betting and e-commerce apps worth ‘Bezos-level’ billions.

Football experts warn the approach ignores simple truths. “You cannot spreadsheet heart,” said former Harambee Stars coach Jacob Ghost Mulee. “A club needs identity, not just young names on a balance sheet.”

Rosenior leaves with a payoff close to Sh400 million, money that could fund an entire FKF Premier League season. He is expected to take a short break before considering jobs in the Championship or Belgium, where his possession style is valued.

For Kenyan fans, the worry is bigger than one sacking. Ticket prices on the club’s planned Nairobi tour have risen 40 %, while the team’s shirt now changes design every six months to juice merchandise sales. “They are turning Chelsea into a luxury brand we can no longer touch,” said Nairobi supporter Amina Hussein.

The search for a new coach is already being mocked online as ‘ChatGPT FC’. Bookmakers list Brentford’s Thomas Frank and Bayern’s Hansi Flick as early favourites, but insiders say the next appointment will simply be ‘the model’s cheapest compatible option’.

Unless the owners learn that football is played by humans, not numbers, another 93-day cycle could begin. For now, Chelsea’s story feels less like sport and more like a warning to every club that believes money plus data equals guaranteed glory.

• Chelsea lost 3-0 at Brighton, their fifth straight league defeat without a goal.
• Liam Rosenior accused his squad of lacking fight and said the display was ‘indefensible’.
• Supporters turned on the head coach for the first time, increasing doubts over his future.

Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior tore into his own players after a lifeless 3-0 defeat at Brighton on Monday night, admitting the performance was “impossible to defend”.

Travelling fans chanted against the manager as soon as the Seagulls took an early lead, and the mood darkened further when Chelsea failed to muster a single shot until the 41st minute. Goals from Brighton’s forwards added salt to the wound, stretching Chelsea’s scoreless run to five league games – a club record since 1912.

“I can’t protect them tonight,” Rosenior told reporters. “We lost almost every duel, every header, every tackle. That wasn’t tactics; that was heart. Right now we look scared of our own shadows.”

The loss leaves Chelsea seven points adrift of fifth-placed Liverpool and on their longest top-flight losing streak since 1993. Co-owner Behdad Eghbali watched from the stands alongside the club’s sporting directors, heightening speculation that another managerial change could follow if results do not improve before Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Leeds United.

Rosenior, appointed last summer, had previously enjoyed public backing from the board, but chants referencing former owner Roman Abramovich and calling for fresh leadership suggest patience has snapped. “I take full responsibility,” he said. “The supporters are hurting and so am I. We must show courage at Wembley or this season will be remembered for surrender.”

Former Blue Chris Sutton labelled the display “gutless”, while social media feeds filled with demands for an interim boss to steer the club through the final weeks. Whether Rosenior reaches the end of the campaign now hinges on a swift turnaround and a positive result at Wembley.

• Chelsea have dismissed Liam Rosenior after only four months and a run of seven defeats in eight matches.
• BlueCo’s £2 billion spending has still left the squad short on experience and clear direction.
• Five coaches, from club legends to South American trophy winners, lead the early betting.

Chelsea are back in the market for a new boss after showing Liam Rosenior the exit door on Wednesday morning.

The 41-year-old leaves after just 16 Premier League games, his last eight bringing seven losses and a growing chorus of boos from the Stamford Bridge stands. Tuesday’s 3-0 home humiliation by Brighton sealed his fate.

Club owners BlueCo now face a deeper problem. Since buying the Blues in 2022 they have spent almost £2 billion on new signings, yet the team still look short of leaders and a clear style. Two trophies — the Club World Cup and the Conference League — have not quieted angry supporters.

Whoever takes over will inherit a youthful dressing-room and the demand to finish in the top four. Below are five names already being discussed inside the boardroom.

Andoni Iraola
The Bournemouth manager has turned the Cherries into a high-pressing top-10 side without a lavish budget. The 42-year-old Spaniard improves young players quickly, a skill Chelsea now need more than ever. The doubt is whether he can handle superstar egos and the glare of a bigger stage.

Marco Silva
Fulham’s boss keeps punching above his weight, guiding the Cottagers to mid-table calm every season. Silva has revived careers such as Alex Iwobi’s, showing he can coax more from under-performing talent. Yet he has never coached a club that expects to fight for titles.

Cesc Fabregas
The former Blues midfielder is only 38 but already has Como fifth in Serie A with the league’s youngest XI. His possession-based game and firm defence have turned the promoted side into European contenders. A return to west London would excite fans, though his lack of Premier League dug-out experience is a risk.

Filipe Luis
Sacked by Flamengo days after an 8-0 cup win, the Brazilian coach is a shock free agent. He won four trophies in Rio with an aggressive front-foot style that could light up Stamford Bridge. Adapting that plan to English football, where Chelsea no longer bully opponents, would be his biggest test.

Diego Simeone
Atletico Madrid’s long-serving Argentinian is the blockbuster option. He has turned Los Rojiblancos into one of Europe’s hardest teams to beat and would bring the steel Chelsea fans crave. Landing him would mean handing over full control and probably another rebuild, but it could also end the club’s slide out of the elite.

Interviews are expected to start this week as Chelsea race to appoint a new gaffer before the next Premier League fixture.

• Rosenior departs after ten losses in 23 games and a 114-year club record of five straight matches without a goal.
• Players grew distant; leaks, ignored staff and public transfer hints undercut the coach’s authority.
• Chelsea eye Marco Silva among several targets, but financial losses and Champions League absence may shrink the summer budget.

Less than four months into a five-and-a-half-year contract, Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea adventure is over.

The 41-year-old was hired in January to replace Enzo Maresca, yet a run of ten defeats in 23 fixtures convinced the board to pull the plug.

Rosenior arrived with praise for slick, possession football, having just guided Strasbourg into Europe for the first time in eight years. Stamford Bridge never saw that version.

Problems surfaced quickly. After a March loss to Newcastle, he defended a pre-match huddle that saw Chelsea players surround referee Paul Tierney. His remark that the team “respected the ball” became a sound-bite of ridicule and sparked a club-worst streak: five games, no goals, no hope.

Inside the camp, confidence ebbed faster. Spanish-speaking stars Marc Cucurella and Enzo Fernández used the international break to flirt with moves to La Liga. Leadership meetings turned silent. Team sheets appeared online hours before kick-off; one leak allegedly came from Cucurella’s barber. A video of Wesley Fofana brushing off assistant James Walker circulated weekly, and staff were mocked as “supply teachers”.

Tactically, Rosenior also wobbled. Paris Saint-Germain crushed Chelsea 8-2 on aggregate in the Champions League last 16; insiders felt the setup was too open. Playing teenage centre-back Mamadou Sarr out of position at right-back led to an early error and goal in the second leg. Moving Moisés Caicedo into a lone pivot left the Ecuadorian over-stretched.

Injuries to Reece James, Cole Palmer and Trevoh Chalobah added pain, yet the decisive blow came at Brighton. The lifeless 3-0 drubbing on Tuesday convinced directors that change could not wait. Within 24 hours Rosenior was gone, his farewell statement 68 words shorter than Maresca’s, a subtle sign of cooler relations upstairs.

The search for a new boss is unofficial until summer. Fulham’s Marco Silva tops the list; his contract expires in June and agent Jorge Mendes already works closely with the Chelsea owners. Bournemouth’s outgoing Andoni Iraola likes the club’s project but wants stability and a return to Spain. Borussia Dortmund’s 2024 Champions League finalist Edin Terzić, Como’s Cesc Fàbregas and unemployed Xabi Alonso are also admired.

Any appointment must cope with a model that favours young signings and rapid managerial turnover. Chelsea are considering adding older heads to the squad, yet a record £262.4 million pre-tax loss for 2024-25 and the threat of no Champions League income will tighten purse strings.

The board will not rush. They want a winner who can steady the ship now and lift silverware later. First, though, they need someone the dressing room will follow.

• Liam Rosenior leaves after seven defeats in eight games, just four months into a six-year deal.
• Calum McFarlane steps up as interim head coach for the rest of the season, his second caretaker spell in 2024.
• He starts with Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final versus Leeds United, then must chase a Europa or Conference League spot.

Chelsea have pressed the reset button again. On Friday the club axed Liam Rosenior following a run of only one win in eight matches. The 39-year-old had signed a six-year contract in January, but a slide to tenth in the Premier League forced the board to act.

Taking over for the final five league games and this weekend’s Wembley clash is 40-year-old Calum McFarlane. The Londoner previously filled the breach in January after Enzo Maresca’s departure, earning praise for a gritty 1-1 draw at Manchester City.

McFarlane’s rise is remarkable. Six years ago he was academy manager at Kinetic, a south-London charity that turns disadvantaged teenagers into pros. Colleagues describe him as “tactically obsessed,” a coach who stays late slicing video to give players an edge.

He will lean on the same back-room staff who served Rosenior. A club statement thanked the outgoing coach and his team, then added: “We believe Cal’s deep knowledge of the squad gives us the best chance of qualifying for Europe and going all the way in the FA Cup.”

Former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink backed the move: “The players fought for him against City. Stability is what they need right now.”

Yet questions remain. McFarlane has never managed a senior victory, and fan forums are split. Some want a big-name ex-Blue, others argue an internal voice can halt the chaos.

Off the pitch, directors insist there is no rush to find a permanent boss. No shortlist exists, though Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola, Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner and Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso are expected to feature when interviews begin in the summer.

First up for McFarlane is Leeds United under the Wembley arch. Win and a second trophy in three seasons is still possible. Lose and the heat will move from the dug-out to the boardroom once more.

• Gary Neville says Chelsea owners BlueCo ‘are lost’ after sacking Liam Rosenior.
• Rosenior leaves after only four months and a run of seven defeats in eight games.
• Chelsea have now dismissed five permanent managers in less than four years under BlueCo.

Sky Sports expert Gary Neville has torn into Chelsea’s leadership after the club fired Liam Rosenior on Wednesday evening.

Rosenior, hired in January on a six-year deal, lasted just 18 matches. Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at Brighton, the club’s fifth straight league loss without a goal, pushed the board to act.

Neville told Sky Sports News the problem is not the coach. “Liam will be hurt, but the blame lies with the owners and sporting directors,” he said. “Giving six-year contracts and then pulling the plug in months is laughable. They look clueless.”

Chelsea fans chanted for change during the Brighton loss. The team sit seventh, seven points behind Liverpool, who still have a game in hand.

Coach Calum McFarlane will again take charge until June. The club admit they have not started looking for a permanent replacement and will “reflect” first.

Since BlueCo bought the club in 2022, each full-time manager has lasted an average of 258 days — less than half the span under previous owner Roman Abramovich.

Neville added: “I’ve made hiring errors, but you must own them. Chelsea need experience somewhere. Right now they’re all over the place.”

• Chelsea have dismissed head coach Liam Rosenior following five straight league defeats without a goal.
• Rosenior won only 11 of 23 matches after arriving in January on a long-term deal.
• Assistant Calum McFarlane steps in as interim boss ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Leeds.

Chelsea have ended Liam Rosenior’s short reign after less than four months, the club confirmed on Wednesday evening.

The Blues crashed to a 3-0 loss at Brighton on Tuesday, stretching their league losing streak to five games and leaving them seventh in the table.

Supporters chanted for change at the final whistle, and the board acted within 24 hours. Rosenior departs with a record of five league wins from 13 attempts and four FA Cup victories over lower-tier sides.

“We thank Liam for his integrity, but results and performances have not met the level required,” the club said in a brief statement.

First-team coach Calum McFarlane, who previously filled in between Enzo Maresca’s exit and Rosenior’s arrival, will lead the squad until June. His first test is Sunday’s Wembley clash with Leeds United, where a win would book a place in the FA Cup final.

Chelsea added that a “thorough review” will guide the next permanent appointment as they chase a return to the Champions League.

• Liam Rosenior has left Chelsea after winning only three of his last 12 matches.
• Results worsened once the fixture list eased and he had extra days to train the squad.
• The Blues ended his spell with five straight league defeats and no goals, their worst run since 1912.

Chelsea have parted company with head coach Liam Rosenior following Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Brighton, a result that stretched the club’s winless league streak to five games without a goal.

When the 41-year-old arrived in January he spoke of “respecting the work already done” by former boss Enzo Maresca. A packed calendar gave him little chance to add new ideas, yet the team still collected eight wins from his opening 11 outings.

The turning point came after an FA Cup victory over Hull City in February. An eight-day gap between matches handed Rosenior his first real block of tactical sessions. Instead of sharpening the side, the extra work coincided with a sharp dip in form.

From that moment Chelsea collected only three victories in 12 attempts, two of them against lower-league opposition in the cup. League defeats to Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United arrived after full weeks of preparation, while a man-to-man pressing plan was dismantled 8-2 on aggregate by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

Players appeared unsettled. Enzo Fernández spoke publicly of a Madrid “dream” during the March break, Marc Cucurella questioned Maresca’s dismissal, and Malo Gusto urged the team to “sit back sometimes” after the heavy loss in France.

Rosenior’s authority was further weakened by off-pitch flashpoints: a touch-line row with Arsenal staff, centre-circle huddles that angered referees, and sound-bites about “respecting the ball” that became social-media jokes.

Chairman Todd Boehly acted after the Brighton defeat left the club 10th in the Premier League form table since mid-January, a slide that contrasts sharply with Michael Carrick’s upward surge at Manchester United in the same period.

Rosenior exits after only 127 days, the latest victim of Chelsea’s revolving-door policy and a sobering example of how extra coaching time can sometimes hasten, not halt, a team’s decline.