Former Chelsea player is in line to replace Liam Rosenior, and it’s not Frank Lampard

Liam Rosenior’s reign at Chelsea is over; did he last long enough for it to be considered a reign? On 8 January, the 41 year old put pen to paper on a six-and-half year deal, but lasted just 106 of these 2,366 days, around 4.5%, before being sacked on Wednesday following a 3-0 hammering at Brighton.

So now, who’s next? A former Chelsea player is seemingly in pole position to land the job this summer, but not the one you’d expect. No, it isn’t Frank Lampard, who has held the position twice before and has just guided Coventry City to Premier League promotion. Nor is it Cesc Fàbregas, who would be the dream appointment for many supporters, given the fantastic work he has done at Como. The current front-runner is instead… drumroll please, Filipe Luís.

Don’t remember his time at Chelsea? Well, that’s fair enough; if you blinked, you may have missed it. A key figure in Diego Simeone’s first La Liga triumph with Atlético Madrid, the left-back joined the Blues for £15.8 million in the summer of 2014. He won the Premier League title and Capital One Cup under José Mourinho, but made just 26 appearances, unable to usurp César Azpilicueta as first-choice.

Thus, the Brazilian re-joined Atlético Madrid after only a year in West London, appearing 333 times for los Colchoneros in total. Luís concluded his playing career with Flamengo, subsequently taking charge of their U17s and then U20s, before getting the senior job in September 2024. Well, he would enjoy unparalleled success in charge of the Mengão.

During his 100 matches in charge of the Rio de Janeiro-based outfit, Luís won seven trophies, which is not a bad haul. After picking up the Copa do Brasil in 2024, the Rubro-Negro won both the Brasileirão title and the Copa Libertadores last yeaer, defeating Palmeiras in the final in Lima.

They also reached December’s FIFA Intercontinental Cup Final, dumping out Cruz Azul and Pyramids en route, only denied the title following a penalty shootout defeat at the hands of PSG. Meantime, at last summer’s expanded Club World Cup, Flamengo certainly captured attention. They played eventual winners Chelsea off the park at Lincoln Financial Field, prevailing 3-1 in Philadelphia en route to topping Group D, ultimately ousted 4-2 by Bayern Munich in the round of 16 in Miami.

Nevertheless, the Brazilian champions’ style of play impressed all onlookers, ranked first in last year’s Brasileirão for ball possession at more than 62%, which underlines Luís’ philosophy. Put succinctly, Luís’ first senior managerial role could hardly have gone any better, so why does he find himself out of work? Well, this is where Chelsea come in.

Back in March, three games into the new league season, and the morning after an 8-0 Cariocão demolition of Madureira at the Maracanã, the 40 year old was sacked in shock news that spread around the world. No one could comprehend why, after all that success, Flamengo would give Luís the boot with no warning.

It later transpired that, in January, the Brazilian had held talks with BlueCo about a vacancy that had just opened up. Following Enzo Maresca’s sacking on New Year’s Day, Luís met with Clearlake Capital representatives about potentially becoming the new Chelsea head coach, or at least he thought. However, BlueCo were interviewing him as a candidates to become Strasbourg boss, having already decided that Liam Rosenior would be swapping the Alsace for the King’s Road.

The talks did not progress very far from there and everyone forgot all about it, that is until Flamengo President Luiz Eduardo Baptista found out weeks later and, so outraged by this, he sacked Luís right away.

So, could he now get the Chelsea job after all? Well, there will be plenty of high-profile managers on the market this summer, Andoni Iraola, Oliver Glasner and possibly Marco Silva to name a few, but would any of them take on the Chelsea project in its current state?

Luís meantime is more aligned with the strategy we’ve seen from Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and friends since their arrival in West London four years ago. Thus, at the time on publication, the smart money would be on Luís becoming the new Chelsea manager, returning to Stamford Bridge where most fans will be having the same conversation: Do you remember him? No. Me Neither.

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