Liam Rosenior verdict, Zinedine Zidane chance, Oliver Glasner call - Next Chelsea manager decided

Chelsea are being linked with a number of managers following Enzo Maresca's surprise exit, with football.london's writers having their say on the next appointment

Chelsea are searching for yet another head coach after Enzo Maresca's shock exit was confirmed on New Year's Day.

The Italian’s position at the Blues was viewed as untenable and this led to the 45-year-old departing Stamford Bridge. Liam Rosenior is the current favourite to take over from Maresca, but a number of other names are also in the mix.

football.london's writers have their say on who should be the next Chelsea manager, below...

Sam Truelove

Maresca, who was named the Barclays Manager of the Month for November on December 12, has been sacked.

Now the Blues are on the hunt for a new head coach. In truth, there are not many names in the running for the role that I like. Maresca was decent while at the helm and will probably go on to manage Manchester City one day. What does that say about Chelsea?

The show goes on, though, and Liam Rosenior is the favourite at present. I don't mind Oliver Glasner and Marco Silva, although I'm unsure how the Chelsea fanbase would react to such an appointment.

Cesc Fabregas certainly makes a lot of sense as well but is he ready and would he leave a club like Como to risk it all at a club like Chelsea? I have more questions than answers at the moment but Glasner would probably be my pick if I was forced to chose Maresca's replacement.

Jake Stokes

Chelsea should appoint Xavi, who's been without a job since stepping down as Barcelona boss in May 2024. The Spaniard replaced Ronald Koeman in the dugout at the Camp Nou midway through the 2021/22 season, steadying the ship after a rocky start to the campaign.

Despite the noise behind the scenes, financial constraints, and the pressure of such a high-profile job, Xavi led the Catalan giants to glory. In his first full season as head coach, he won La Liga and the Supercopa de Espana, while also integrating many exciting young players from the academy - one of whom was Marc Guiu.

Ultimately, Xavi shares a lot of the same ideas as Maresca. He's a winner. He works well with young players. And he's a free agent. As much as I like Liam Rosenior and what he's said in the past, I'm not convinced the Chelsea job is what's best for his career right now.

Perhaps Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart should take the reins, seeing as they seem to think they know best...

Josh Holland

I'm a big fan of Rosenior, but I fear Chelsea are at risk of giving the job to another manager too early. When Graham Potter arrived in 2022, he was one of the most in-demand head coaches in the game at Brighton, but he needed a step up before moving.

There's an argument that Maresca was another example of that, but he succeeded last season. Rosenior would be more of a gamble. Xavi would be a big statement, but I'm not entirely sure whether he will be a fan of the way the club is run by the hierarchy.

Zinedine Zidane is also a free agent and would be perfect. Chelsea fans want a winner to come in and Zidane won Champions League titles for fun at Real Madrid. He's said to be waiting for the France job after the World Cup, but nothing is guaranteed.

He would arrive and set the standards straight away. As a free agent, it's a no-brainer.

Aaron Morris

It might come as a bitter pill to swallow, but I'm not sure that Chelsea can do better than Maresca at present. The market is hardly screaming with proven top-tier head coaches who are currently out of work, and let's not forget what the Italian managed in his year-and-a-half tenure at Stamford Bridge - clinching the Club World Cup and the Europa Conference League.

While there have been talks of bringing in Rosenior from Strasbourg, I fear that it would be a rash move given the 41-year-old's most successful stint on English soil was a seventh-place finish with Hull City in the Championship.

With Fabregas being a minority shareholder with Como, and both Andoni Iraola and Oliver Glasner being content in their current roles with Bournemouth and Crystal Palace respectively, I can't see either taking a gamble with Chelsea.

For me, that leaves Xavi as the best possible contender for the job at present, and even then, the Spaniard would still be a major risk - having not played for nor managed an English club in the entirety of his career, and out of work since 2024.

Patrick Austen-Hardy

Maresca arrived as a completely different option to Thomas Tuchel, Potter and Mauricio Pochettino, but his exit has similarities to his blue predecessors. Just like the aforementioned trio, it appears his sacking has proceeded a power struggle he lost convincingly.

Sky Sports News claimed a source within Chelsea briefed them that Maresca "lacks mental fortitude and emotional maturity" suggesting there was a personal wedge driven between him and the board. It's easy to churn out names like Liam Rosenior, Filipe Luis and Francesco Farioli, but the powers that be at Stamford Bridge must also look at themselves.

Tuchel has always been a volatile manager, but the fact Potter and Pochettino, patient managers who have been happy to work under a set structure, also found themselves at odds with the Blueco strategy suggests there are flaws in their vision, assuming there is one at all. Maresca and Pochettino both wanted to add experience and considering Chelsea have dropped 14 points from winning positions and have one of the worst disciplinary records in the Premier League, it's badly needed, at least for the short term.

Yet, this contradicts the Blueco young revolution and while they have gained an excellent reputation for player sales, Conference League and Club World Cup aside, they have not looked close to winning a major trophy. Good luck to Rosenior, if he is next on the manager conveyer belt, but the Blueco bigwigs should not be surprised if the built-in flaws in their plan bring the Strasbourg coach the same issues.