Лиам Розениор ажлаасаа чөлөөлөгдлөө: Челсигийн тогтворгүй стратеги ба ирээдүйн сорилт

Rosenior fired: Brighton defeat was final straw, so what now for Chelsea?

Contrary to the suggestionin yesterday’s TAFC, I wasn’t required to tell Liam Rosenior he was a goner, and neither were you. Chelsea got in theirrapidoandsacked him before sundown. Thoughts are with that six-and-a-half-year contract he signed three months ago.

We all felt it coming because Tuesday night, his last as head coach, had the constituent parts of aShakespearean tragedy in football form: a thumping at Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea’s fans openly hammering Rosenior, and Rosenior openly hammering his players.Conor O’Neill got to the nub of the matter: a desperate tactical shake-up bearing no fruit was a glaring red flag. Rosenior had lost the plot.

A part of me feels sorry for him, desite the resultsand his LinkedIn rhetoric. He was cutting his teeth diligently at Strasbourg before he got the summons from Chelsea, and the sensible career path he doubtless envisaged has been obliterated. Being so wet behind the earsmeant he had to smash it from day one at Stamford Bridgeto muster any authority. It wasn’t that Chelsea didn’t have good games under him, but once he was reduced totalkinga good game, the rest of us were counting the days.

Cerys Jonesran through whythe Rosenior appointment didn’t (and wasn’t going to) work. Once you deal with his limitations as a coach (and you can see how the squad’s pressing declined, below), thoughts quickly shift to Chelsea’s modus operandi as a club. Because the flawed experiment with Rosenior is only a subplot in the bigger story of flawed strategic thinking.

Fabregas in the frame

We’ve previously discussed the figures at football teams — the sporting director types — who arrange and argue for appointments like this one, but then stand back as the consequences of failure are borne by the coach they touted as the next big thing. To speak plainly: having dismissed Rosenior, shouldn’t the Chelsea owners at BlueCo be asking what the technical staff are playing at?

Then again, who really knows what Chelsea are playing at?Their finances are perplexing— and they need Champions League football tomake them work— andeven their own players can seethat their squad-building ignores the part that proven experience plays in winning major trophies. Rosenior’s long, long contract — and I know that these things are, in part,an accountancy trick— is symptomatic of a trend of overblown (dare I say smug?) expressions of faith in individuals, as if to say “look how confident we are in our recruitment”. But the reality speaks for itself.

The statement announcing Rosenior’s sacking yesterday promised
“a process of self-reflection”, which at least implied that Chelsea’s decision-makers realise they’ve dropped the ball. Their under-21s boss,Calum McFarlane, is stepping in as caretaker again, with the immediate priority of seeing Chelsea through Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Leeds United.

Cesc Fabregas is among the early runners and riders for the job. The next choice of head coach will go a long way to proving whether Chelsea simply need the right man, or whether BlueCo’s model is doomed to fail.

News round-up

• Paolo Zampolli, a U.S. special envoy, says he asked American president Donald Trump and FIFAto replace Iran with Italy at the World Cup. “With four titles, (Italy) have the pedigree to justify inclusion,” Zampolli told the Financial Times. FIFA declined to comment when contacted byThe Athletic.
• Lamine Yamalinjured himselfwhile scoring a penalty in Barcelona’s La Liga victory over Celta Vigo last night (above). He’s not somebody Barca can dare to lose for an extended period. And from the point of view of Spain’s national team, the clock is ticking to the World Cup, fast. We’ll keep you posted.
• Two other World Cup injury blows to tell you about: Bayern Munich and Germany forwardSerge Gnabrywill miss the tournament with a torn thigh muscle. And Chelsea and Brazil wingerEstevaohas only a slim chanceof recovering from a bad hamstring strain in time.
• American goalkeeperJonathanKlinsmannis recovering after undergoing surgery on the broken neck he suffered playing for Italian side Cesena on Saturday. The operation went to plan.
• The ringleader of an illegal streaming service, nicknamed ‘Dash, The Iranian’,has been fined £7.5million ($10.2m) and sentenced to 23 months in jail by a Spanish court.
• Executives inTorontoare considering making their World Cup fan fests free (or largely free)following a backlash over proposed charges. They were thinking of selling tickets at $10 a go.
• A decade after joining the club, defenderJohn Stoneswill leave Manchester City this summer. We’re expecting his exit to be formally announced next week.

Premier profit: City boys seal takeover at Burnley

Manchester City moving to the top of the Premier League, as they did with avictory at Burnleylast night, shouldn’t be a red-letter day. They’re so accustomed to winning the title that it’s easy to think of first place as their natural habitat.

But actually,it’s taken some doing. Before this morning, they last led the Premier League on August 21 (seven days on from matchday one). Arsenal find themselves in second for the first time since October 4. At its height, the gap between them was nine points, but April, statistically, is when results at the Emirates become like creeping death.

There’s a mind-blowing statistic inthis data analysispublished byThe Athleticat the weekend (pre-empting City’s climb to the summit): under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal have led the Premier Leaguefor over 100 days more than City. Yet in that period, Pep Guardiola has four titles to Arteta’s zero. One of them knows how to finish. The other is still trying to crack it.

City, in truth, didn’t maximise the potential of their trip to Burnley.
A 1-0 win did little to boost their goal difference, which could easily come into play in the final reckoning. And owing to the FA Cup this weekend, Arsenal have two Premier League matches scheduled before City contest their next. These are the straws for Arteta to clutch.

• Defeat to City confirmed Burnley’s relegation. They haven’t so much as whimpered under Scott Parker this season, but his track record of winning promotion from the Championship is excellent. So do they stick with him?

Passing? Over-rated: Bromley on the cusp of title with total long-ball commitment

Bromley, a modest team from Greater London, love a strong narrative. They took 132 years to get into the English Football League in 2024, but then took just two to earn promotion from League Two, and they could pick up the title this evening.

What makes them special, or borderline unique, is their total commitment to long-ball football. You won’t find Guardiola’stiki-takain these parts. Check out the graph above, in which the higher scores denote the tactics Bromley use most frequently. Direct play comes in at a full-blown 99/99. Deep build-up ranks at 1/99. Their passes-per-sequence-of-possession average stands at 1.7, which is genuinely funny.

Successful sides come in different shapes and sizes, and the variety ought to be celebrated. The sport would be boring if one size fitted all. Bromley are like an all-you-can-eat buffet: it ain’t winning Michelin stars, but it’s not sending you home hungry. “We play to our strengths,” says manager Andy Woodman, father of Liverpool goalkeeper Freddieand the man running the kitchen. Amen to that.

Around TAFC

Catch a match

Selected games (kick-offs ET/UK time)

La Liga: Rayo Vallecano vs Espanyol, 2pm/7pm —ESPN/LaLigaTV;Real Oviedo vs Villarreal, 3.30pm/8.30pm —ESPN/Premier Sports.

German DFB-Pokal: Stuttgart vs Freiburg, 2.45pm/7.45pm —ESPN, Fubo/DFB Play.

Dutch Eredivisie: PSV vs PEC Zwolle, 3pm/8pm —ESPN/Premier Sports, TrillerTV.

And finally…

GOALKEEPER LUKA GAVRAN TIES IT AT THE DEATH! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/t564thkRW9

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 23, 2026

There were goals galore in MLS last night: 16 in New York alone, another six in Toronto, six more in San Jose and five for good measure in Orlando.

None deserved our attention as much asLuka Gavran heading in on 96 minutesto earn Toronto FC a 3-3 draw with Philadelphia Union (above). The timing of the run is superb, the finish is clinical — and who could ever get tired of seeing a goalkeeper scoring?