Chelsea’s owners were ‘crazy’ to appoint Liam Rosenior, says Paul Scholes

Chelsea’s owners were “crazy” to think Liam Rosenior was the right person to take the club forwards, according to former England midfielder Paul Scholes.

Rosenior was sacked last week after only three and a half months in the job following a run of five consecutive Premier League defeats in which his team failed to score.

The former Hull boss was appointed in January on a six-and-a-half-year deal by Chelsea owners BlueCo from sister club Strasbourg.

In announcing Rosenior’s sacking, a club statement said there would be “a process of self-reflection to make the right long-term appointment”.

The Press Association understands there is an acknowledgement internally that appointing such an inexperienced coach was a mistake and that a different direction is being pursued with their next choice of manager.

Scholes – part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s successful Manchester United side – believes Rosenior, 41, was the wrong person for the Stamford Bridge hotseat.

Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, Scholes said: “I don’t see what the Chelsea owners are trying to do. Develop young players, is that a way of doing it? I don’t know.

“The owners will take blame for a lot of it, of course they will. Other than the owners, nobody else in and around football thought Liam Rosenior was the right person for Chelsea. It was just crazy for me.

“Once you make that decision, what is Liam going to do? He is not going to say no to a Chelsea job from where he was. But once the owners make that decision, then they have to factor in that there’s going to be times when it’s not going that well.

“Now, losing five Premier League games and not scoring a goal is a big problem and you are not going to survive that and he hasn’t.”

First-team coach Calum McFarlane has taken over in an interim role, and guided Chelsea into the FA Cup final with victory over Leeds on Sunday.

Xabi Alonso, Andoni Iraola and Marco Silva are said to be among the managers under consideration for the next permanent appointment – which will be a fifth of the BlueCo era.

Chelsea return to Premier League action on Monday against relegation-battlers Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues currently sit eighth, 10 points behind fifth spot, but only two off sixth-placed Brighton who occupy the Europa League position.