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The Football Reporters: Liam Rosenior’s exit lifts Chelsea

ESPN FC

ESPN

Sports, Soccer

4.32.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 63 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rob Dawson, Mark Ogden and James Olley discuss Chelsea’s returning to winning ways after Liam Rosenior’s sacking and Mikel Arteta’s looming striker decision in the Champions League semifinals. Plus, Tom Hamilton joins to assess Tottenham’s chances of avoiding the drop, and Manchester Uniteed’s hopes of finding a ‘unicorn’ manager. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:30.8

Hello and welcome to the football reporters. Coming up this week, myself Mark and James, look at a bright

0:35.4

start to Chelsea's postura senior era as Kellyn McFiling guides them into the FA Cup Final against Manchester City. We preview the Champions League semi-finals where Michel Artetta faces a big striker decision with Kai Havert possibly out injured. Tom Hamilton tells us what the mood was like at Molyneux as Spurs finally got their first Premier League win of 2026 and we explained why Manchester United fired themselves chasing a unicorn as they seek a permanent successor to Ruben Amrin.

1:00.6

Well, we're going to start this week with Chelsea. Mark, you were at Wembley on Sunday

1:04.3

to watch Chelsea reach the FA Cup final after beating Leeds. It's obviously been a very difficult

1:09.1

spell for Chelsea, got rid of another manager in Liam Rossignor, it's now Callan McFarlane again for the second time this season. Just on the performance in general, Mark, I mean, did you see a noticeable uplift in what the players were giving the manager? Because there's been a lot of talk about whether they ever really talked to Liam Ressinger. There's definitely an uplift in the performance. I'm not sure whether it was for Callan McFarlane or whether he was maybe was a quite selfish performance, but not in a negative way. It says that the players are playing for themselves and playing for the team and just top players wanting to win. And I think the player that kind of embodied that was Enzo Fernandez. He was outstanding against Leeds, ran the game, scored the goal. It was just, he was the manager on the pitch, and there was an incident in the second half when Robert Sanchez went down for treatment in the penalty area. It was one of those classic kind of tactical injuries whereby Enzo had spotted that Leeds had changed the formation at halftime. Chelsea was struggling with it, and he basically said, go down, and then they all regrouped and had a tactical chat and sort it out. So Callum McFarlane, yes, he was the coach in the technical area, but I think Enzo Fernandez was the guy that was clearly the boss on the pitch. And, you know, yesterday I saw a real kind of, almost had the evolution. You can see where Chelsea's leadership is coming from now. It's coming from Enzo, It's coming from Kukurea. You know, Zhao Pedro as well. There's a group of players that obviously Chelsea's saying younger players to develop. Well, these three guys have clearly developed. They are the more extremeers players in the group. And you could see that coming through. And I think in there, to go against those guys, they didn't really show that on the

2:34.9

Leon Rossini, and that's ultimately letting him down. But that isn't on them solely. It's also on Rossini for not getting out of them. You know, maybe they feel that Callum McFarne is a less, I don't know, a less showy figure. I mean, Rossini wanted to make a lot of it about himself in many ways, even though he was saying that he's, you know, he's a Chelsea coach and he loves the players.

2:53.6

It was all about him a lot as well.

2:54.7

So I think it make a lot of it about himself in many ways, even though he was saying that he's, you know, he's the Chelsea coach and he loves the players. He was all about him a lot

2:54.4

as well. So I think McFarland is very much more kind of in the shadows and very much low-key. And the players, they want to take it on themselves and yesterday they did. And I've got to say, I think that, you know, Chelsea on their day can be anybody

3:04.6

and they showed that and they could certainly be sitting in the final.

3:07.5

Well, let's just talk about Liam Rossini then

3:09.5

because James, there's a piece on... Chelsea on their day can be anybody and they showed that and they could certainly be sitting the final.

3:12.0

Well, let's just talk about Learmer Sr then because James, there's a piece on site that you wrote last week about where it kind of all went wrong for Leenra Senior.

3:15.9

If you haven't read that, you should go and visit ESPN.com.

3:19.0

Nice plug for your piece, James.

3:21.5

The theme all the way through that is that he's a good guy, a good coach, but just never

3:27.4

really got a grip of the dressing room.

3:30.1

I mean, he's at the sense around the club at the moment that he just really never kind

...

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