Calum McFarlane had to disappoint his family to take Chelsea interim role

Chelsea interim head coach Calum McFarlane was on his way to a family day out in Windsor on Thursday when he got the call that led to him being thrust into the hot seat for Sunday’s visit to Manchester City.

Under-21 coach McFarlane, whose first ever match in charge in senior football will be against six-time Premier League winner Pep Guardiola, was diverted to the club’s Cobham training centre at around lunchtime after receiving a call from sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart.

There he was told that he would be in the dugout at the Etihad Stadium following the sudden departure of Enzo Maresca earlier in the day.

Strasbourg boss Liam Rosenior remained the leading candidate on Friday to replace the Italian in the long term and appeared to open the door to moving to Stamford Bridge when asked during a pre-scheduled press conference, saying: “In life, there are zero guarantees.

“I love (Strasbourg), but I can’t guarantee anything. Nobody can.”

The Ligue 1 side are owned by BlueCo, the investment group that owns Chelsea, which could grease the gears of a move to Stamford Bridge, though the group would also have to consider who might replace Rosenior in Alsace.

For now though it is McFarlane, who required a new pass to be hurriedly made so he could access the first-team building at Cobham, who is in charge.

“I was actually on the way to a Windsor light show with my family,” said McFarlane. “I got a call that said ‘when can you get in?’. I said I can be there in an hour. The missus wasn’t very happy about that.

“I shot across and they explained what happened and said you’re going to be preparing to play Manchester City on Sunday. We really support you and trust you, and good luck.

“Once they’d explained the situation and we’d figured out what I would like the staff team to look like, we made calls around and everyone came in at short notice.”

McFarlane only moved to Chelsea in the summer from Southampton where he had spent two years in charge of their under-21s and previously their under-18s.

Prior to that he spent three years at City doing various jobs with under-15, under-16 and under-18 teams, after spending three years working at Tromso in Norway. He previously held youth coaching roles at Fulham and Crystal Palace.

“We’ve got limited time,” said McFarlane, who took first-team training on Friday morning and will get a further session on Saturday before the squad travels to Manchester.

“There’s been some really good work done previously. It will be about introducing some of (my) own ideas, some of my own concepts around how you think you can be successful.

“But not trying to reinvent the wheel. There’s been some great work done and we’ll try and continue that.”