Rosenior insists ‘I’m not a joke’ (or a plonker) after Chelsea stitch up

Liam Rosenior didn’t quite describe the English media’s coverage of his time in the Premier League as a “stitch up”, but the former Chelsea boss did then insist “I’m not a joke” in a comically misguided attempt to distance himself from comparisons with David Brent.

Rosenior – now manager of Paris FC – was relieved of his duties at Stamford Bridge after just 106 days in charge on the back of losing five consecutive games without scoring.

Dubbed ‘LinkedIn’ Liam for his unique style of management and for holding press conferences as though they were self-improvement seminars, Rosenior’s words and actions were frequently compared to the idiosyncratic middle-manager of the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg in BBC sitcom The Office.

Rosenior vowed not to “limit the limitlessness” of Chelsea Football Club, told his players to “respect the ball” in a huddle around the centre circle before kick-off and claimed the process of ‘managing’ was all about ‘ageing men’.

He’s now spoken out about his time in the Premier League for the first time and claims his Stamford Bridge sacking was “nothing to do with football” in a cryptic comment on “tolerance” in English football.

He told So Foot: “It was the best experience of my life, and the hardest, too. It was fantastic, even though it only lasted four months. 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 an important value, what happened there has nothing to do with football.”

Pressed to explain, Rosenior continued: “I know, I answered without answering it. Actually, the moment that worried me the most was at the beginning, when we went through that five-game winning streak.

“Any club would have been happy with such a run, but not Chelsea. You get good results and you’re in the spotlight. Then, there was a kind of snowball effect in the media.

“They made fun of those instructions I gave (Alejandro) Garnacho on a scrap of paper when we were down to 10 men against PSG (during the second leg in March as they lost 8-2 on aggregate).”

And having been cast as “the biggest plonker of the year” in the Chelsea “stitch up”, Rosenior was eager to point out “I’m not a plonker”.

He added: “The clothes I wore became a joke, the way I spoke, too. I’m not a joke! You’re the first people I’m talking to about this, and probably the last for a long time, but one day, I’ll tell you what really happened.”

Rosenior insists he was found guilty in the court of public opinion.

“In England, there’s this preconceived notion of what a Premier League coach should be, how he should behave,” he said. “You have to conform to that standard. People who know me know that I’m someone who tries to be sincere and authentic.

“But I don’t have control over how the media describes me or talks about me. What I’ve understood now, and this is important for all coaches worldwide, is that social media, or the media in general, can dictate public opinion about the quality of a player or a coach.

“This isn’t new, of course, but the biggest lesson from my time at Chelsea is knowing that they are also capable of constructing the entire narrative around a club’s trajectory.”