Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali has declared the club’s support for head coach Liam Rosenior, but coupled that endorsement with a pointed reminder that performance on the pitch remains the decisive factor in professional football.
Eghbali, 49, made the remarks on Thursday, April 17, 2026, while speaking at the CAA World Congress of Sports in Los Angeles, where he addressed Chelsea’s ownership philosophy, transfer strategy, and the current state of the first team. According to Pulse Sports, Eghbali also indicated the club intends to revise its widely criticised youth-focused transfer policy.
On the subject of Rosenior specifically, Eghbali was measured but direct. “We think he has every attribute to be successful here,” he said, as cited by journalist Fabrizio Romano. “He got off to a great start. We’ve had a tough past five, six matches, but I think we’re behind Liam. Of course, it’s a results business, but we think he can be successful long term.”
The vote of confidence arrives at a deeply difficult moment for the West London club. Chelsea have won just one of their last seven Premier League matches and currently sit sixth in the table, four points adrift of fifth-placed Liverpool with UEFA Champions League qualification increasingly under threat. The domestic difficulties have been compounded further by a crushing Champions League exit — a 8-2 aggregate defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Round of 16 — that represented one of the most humiliating results in the club’s recent history.
Rosenior was appointed in January 2026, arriving directly from RC Strasbourg — a fellow member of the BlueCo multi-club ownership network — to replace Enzo Maresca, who departed abruptly. His integration within the BlueCo structure is understood to be central to the ownership’s continued faith in him, despite the deteriorating results. While his early weeks at Stamford Bridge showed promise, his overall record across all competitions now reads 11 wins, three draws, and nine losses from 23 matches. Five of those defeats have come in his last six outings.
For a club that has won the UEFA Champions League twice and invested heavily in squad-building under the current ownership, the position represents a significant underperformance relative to expectations. Chelsea’s transfer outlays since BlueCo’s takeover in 2022 have been among the highest in European football, making the current league standing all the more difficult to justify.
Despite the bleak run of form, Rosenior retains a tangible opportunity to rescue the season. Chelsea are scheduled to face Leeds United in the FA Cup semi-final on April 26, a fixture that offers the prospect of both a major trophy and a route back to European competition via the FA Cup winner’s UEFA berth. How Rosenior’s side perform in that tie is likely to carry significant weight in shaping the ownership’s assessment of his long-term suitability for the role.
Eghbali’s comments represent the clearest public signal yet from Chelsea’s hierarchy that Rosenior will not face an immediate sacking, but the framing — “it’s a results business” — leaves little ambiguity about the conditions attached to that support.
