Liam Rosenior has finally spoken about Chelsea, and he has done it a long way from London. Speaking to French football magazine So Foot, the Paris FC manager said he was not ready to lay out what really happened at Stamford Bridge but insisted the reasons for his departure had nothing to do with results on the pitch.
“In a country where tolerance is an important value, what happened there has nothing to do with football,” Rosenior told So Foot, in comments reported by SportWitness.
He declined to go further for now, saying only that he would explain the full story one day, when the time was right.
The Garnacho note that became the punchline
One episode in particular drew his anger. During Chelsea’s Champions League second-leg defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, down to 10 men and already 8-2 behind on aggregate, Rosenior handed substitute Alejandro Garnacho a scrap of paper with tactical instructions as the forward came on. The image became a running joke across football media.
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Rosenior told So Foot via Get French Football News that the ridicule went beyond the note itself: his clothes and the way he spoke had also been turned into material by the English press. His response was blunt.
“I’m not a joke.”
107 days, five goalless defeats, and out
Rosenior was appointed in January 2026 as Enzo Maresca’s replacement and lasted 107 days in the job. Chelsea won six of his first seven matches, then lost seven of his final eight, a slide that ended with five consecutive league defeats without a single goal scored. The board acted in April.
Xabi Alonso was named his permanent successor on a four-year deal starting on 1 July 2026, and has since taken Chelsea into the Premier League’s top four.
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A quieter stage in Paris
Rosenior did not stay out of work long. He joined Paris FC on 7 July on a two-year contract, taking charge of a club still finding its feet after promotion. The early signs there are the opposite of what he left behind: Paris FC sit fourth in Ligue 1 after nine matches, with 17 points from five wins and two draws.
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