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Liam Rosenior has been sacked as Chelsea manager after a desperate run of five Premier League defeats without scoring a goal.
Chelsea confirmed his departure on Wednesday, less than four months in charge and just four days before playing in an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
Assistant Calum McFarlane will take charge on an interim basis until the end of the season.
“This has not been a decision that the club has taken lightly; however, recent results and performances have fallen below the necessary standards and there is still much to play for this season,” Chelsea said in a statement.
The team that won the Club World Cup last year is likely to miss next season’s Champions League. That would mean a huge financial hit for a club that has spent billions of dollars under American owners Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly.
The five-game losing streak is the worst since 1912, the same year the Titanic sank.
Tuesday’s 3-0 loss to Brighton was the final straw for Rosenior, an inexperienced top-flight coach who was hired from Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg in January. It was the club’s seventh defeat in eight games in all competitions.
Chelsea have won one of their last nine league games, are seventh in the standings and seven points off the top five, all of which have qualified for the Champions League.
Rosenior, 41, attacked his players after the Brighton game, saying the performance was “indefensible” and that “something has to change drastically.”
The club’s hierarchy clearly agreed, despite saying that Rosenior had “always conducted himself with the utmost integrity and professionalism.”
Rosenior replaced Club World Cup champion coach Enzo Maresca in January and managed only 23 games.
They started impressively with a run of six wins in seven games, but things quickly unraveled in recent weeks, including elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.
His tenure came to an end even as Chelsea prepared for their FA Cup semi-final against Leeds on Sunday.
Rosenior becomes the fifth permanent manager to lose his job since Clearlake and Boehly bought one of English football’s most historic clubs in 2022. A sixth is now being sought to try to achieve sustained success.
“As the club works to bring stability to the head coach position, we will undertake a process of self-reflection to make the right appointment for the long term,” Chelsea said.
Rosenior’s departure comes after fans of the two-time Champions League winner and six-time English champion began protesting against the American owners.
While there have been trophies, the Club World Cup and the Europa Conference League last season, this could be the third campaign in four in which they have failed to qualify for the Champions League.
Under former owner Roman Abramovich, Chelsea were one of the most dominant teams in Europe, winning a full run of trophies, including two Champions Leagues and five Premier League titles.
They last won the Champions League in 2021, a year before Abramovich was forced to sell the club after being sanctioned by the British government in the wake of Russia’s war with Ukraine.
