“I’m not a joke!” Liam Rosenior speaks out strongly in a new interview about leaving Chelsea.
Liam Rosenior has finally opened up about his time at Chelsea, speaking out about the fans and media who teased him during his tough spell there.
When he was named Chelsea boss in January, most people didn’t have high hopes for him.
In the end, he was in charge for just 107 days before being let go on April 22. His time as manager led to a lot of online teasing, something he’s now talked about in a new interview.
After a strong start with six wins in his first seven games, things unfortunately went downhill for Rosenior. He left with a record of 11 wins, two draws, and 10 losses in 23 games.
Since then, he has returned to France to manage Paris FC, where he’s done well, with five wins and two draws in nine matches.
Rosenior recently spoke to French magazine So Foot about his Chelsea experience and how he felt about how fans and media treated him.
“It was the best experience of my life, and also the hardest. It was fantastic, even though it only lasted four months,” he said.
But after starting off positive, he hinted there might be more to his departure than we know.
“I don’t want to go into details now; I’ll talk about it one day when the time is right. But in a country where tolerance is important, what happened there wasn’t about football.”
He added, “The moment that worried me the most was early on, during our five-game winning streak. Any club would have been happy, but not Chelsea. Getting good results put me in the spotlight, and then the media kind of snowballed it.”
“They made fun of the little notes I gave Garnacho when we were down to 10 men against PSG. They joked about my clothes and the way I spoke. I’m not a joke! You’re the first people I’m sharing this with, and probably the last for a while, but one day, I’ll tell you what really happened.”
Like many Premier League managers at big clubs, Rosenior faced his share of teasing, especially for his formal and polite style. His ‘LinkedIn-style’ way of speaking became an easy target online, with some old comments about him resurfacing too.
But did Rosenior really deserve so much teasing during his Chelsea time? Probably not. Yet, it’s easy to see why fans got frustrated.
Coming in with much less experience than most Stamford Bridge managers meant he started off at a disadvantage in fans’ eyes. Winning six of his first seven games helped, but losing seven of his last eight made things difficult.
Officially, Chelsea said he was let go because results and performances weren’t good enough. But Rosenior’s words suggest there might be more to the story we’ll hear someday soon.