This is not the same old story, Chelsea opted for an internal solution, turning to the coach of their partner club.
He Chelsea He has a new coach… again.
Liam Rosenior has taken charge of the team in Stamford Bridge after the sudden departure of Enzo Maresca on New Year’s Day, becoming the sixth coach of the Blues in the era of BlueCo (a consortium that includes Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly), and the fifth permanent appointment the group has made since taking control in May 2022.
But this is not the same old story. Like a Major League Baseball team, the Chelsea has opted for an internal solution, turning to the coach of its associated club, the Strasbourgof the Ligue 1. Although we are used to seeing this type of trajectory in players so that they add minutes on loan and learn the system, having coaches follow this same path takes the relationship to another level.
It is rarer than it seems, and practically never happens in elite football.
Development Pathways Are Common for Players…But Not for Coaches
There are currently more than 100 multi-club organizations (MCOs) in football, of which at least 23 link three or more clubs. Some even seem like small empires, such as the City Football Group, with a portfolio of 12 clubs spread across five continents and with the Manchester City to the head.
The movement of players via pre-arranged routes between partner clubs has become increasingly common. The group Red Bull perfected this strategy more than a decade ago, moving players up the chain, passing through the FC Liefering (of the Austrian second division), to RB Salzburg (of the Austrian first division), to RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga German, to finally be transferred to an elite club, thus generating important benefits. Some of the best players in Europe today, such as Dominik Szoboszlai of the Liverpool y Dayot Upamecano of the Bayern Munichthey followed this path.
The path of Chelsea al Strasbourg It has become one of the busiest in football. Three current players of the Chelsea —Mike Penders, Kendry Paez and Mamadou Sarr— are on loan to the team Ligue 1while three others —Ben Chilwell, Diego Moreira y Mathis Amougou— joined permanently. The Brazilian midfielder Andrey Santos He spent last season on loan at Strasbourg and now he will meet again Roses in it Chelsea. In a reverse movement, the 22-year-old Dutch forward, Emmanuel Emeghawill join the Chelsea in summer.
However, coaches who go this route are much less common. The only business group that has really achieved this is Red Bull, which has successfully promoted Marco Rose, Matthias Jaissle and, above all, to Jesse Marchthrough your system.
Examples elsewhere are scarce. Patrick Vieira led the youth team Manchester City and then went to New York City FCunder the umbrella of the City Football Group; Daniel Stendel directed the Barnsley and later moved to the subsidiary club Nancybelonging to the Pacific Media Group in France; y Nigel Pearson took the reins of OH Leuvenowned by King Power International, in Belgiumshortly after leaving the Leicester City.
Elite clubs in Europe’s top leagues had not yet used this strategy for their own coaches, until now.
“Boehly interviewed everyone I know at Red Bull”
ESPN spoke with march (currently coach of the men’s national team of Canada), who is the quintessential example of a coach trained in a multiclub organization, having gone from New York Red Bulls al FC Salzburg and then to RB Leipzig over six years. The former US international emphasized that while a good multi-club organization unifies playing styles and develops player trajectories, it can and should do much more.
“The first thing I would say is that when Todd Boehly bought the club [Chelsea]interviewed virtually everyone I know in Red Bulleither to join the club or to learn about the processes of Red Bull in the development of a multiclub model. So I clearly had it in mind from the beginning,” he said. “It’s not just about the style of play. “It’s about developing young players, coaches, scouts, physiotherapists, sports scientists, video analysts and assistant coaches.”
“This is what I think the identity of a club should be. One of the most important elements is the development of the coaches, because they are the ones in charge of implementing the style of play.”
By signing players and monitoring their development at different clubs, you gain a deep understanding of them, and the same logic applies to coaching staff. march claims this eliminates some of the crucial unknowns that arise during a conventional coaching hiring process.
“One of the problems with coaches is that you don’t always know how they manage stress or how they take responsibility in difficult situations,” he explains. “But now you have a prior understanding of who they are. How do they approach certain aspects of their job? How do they treat the people around them? These aspects are almost more important than their ability as coaches.”
March, who directed the Leeds United between 2022 and 2023, maintains that the level of intensity in the Premier League It is incomparable to any other football league. “The stress, the pressure and the attention from the media and the fans… I think that, if I were a sporting director, that would be one of the things that would give me confidence: knowing how my coach would handle that kind of pressure.”
A glimpse into the dark future of football?
The signing of Roses for him Chelsea raises important questions for the near future, the first of which is the viability of successfully managing a multi-club system. In the opinion of marchit’s incredibly difficult.
“There are many inefficiencies in football. The hiring and firing system that prevails in most clubs, the inability to have a long-term plan, the impossibility of aligning the club with its youth team… and that is only within one club, imagine in a multi-club system!
“This is football, these are people; emotion influences decisions more than reason and strategy.”
Red Bull has achieved obvious success, and Boehly has drawn on that organization for ideas and advice on how to replicate the model. BlueCo has been quick to name the former coach of the Wolves, Gary O’Neil, as its replacement in Strasbourgwhich makes him a possible candidate for the Chelsea in the future. CFG, which includes Manchester Cityhas opened paths for coaches in lower categories and has allowed them to coach on different continents, but with Pep Guardiola leading the core team for almost a decade, there has been no clear move to groom a successor using this method.
Instead, it seems much more likely that the City turn to one of the former assistants of Pep when the time comes. Pep Lijnders (previously with Klopp in it Liverpool) currently holds that position and was recently called a “genius” by Guardiola; According to reports, Maresca He has had conversations about that position and is now a free agent; the coach of Arsenal, Mikel Artetawas formed under the tutelage of Guardiola; while Vincent Kompanycurrent coach of Bayernwas a key defender and captain of Guardiola in the field.
Then there is the Manchester Unitedthe jewel in the crown of the INEOS club portfolio, which includes Lausanne in Swiss and to OGC Nice in France. After having fired Reuben Amorim, the first coach their board actually chose, perhaps they would do well to start using the other clubs under the control of Sir Jim Ratcliffe as a test bed, which would help them avoid unpleasant surprises.
But is it significant that there are no success stories in this area (except for Red Bull)?
Another question is whether what benefits one club in this relationship also benefits the other. It should be noted that fans of Strasbourg They are outraged by the signing of Roses for him Chelseaand the fans federation has described it as “another humiliating step in the submission of the Racing before him Chelsea“.
They are not the first fans to feel trampled by multi-club groups and large companies; even the model Red Bull has generated criticism in some quarters. And adding a hierarchy of coaches to already established player trajectories will only exacerbate the problem for many.
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