Paul Merson has urged Chelsea to appoint Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe as Liam Rosenior’s successor.
Chelsea fired Rosenior last week after a dismal run of results, with former U21 boss Calum McFarlane taking interim charge until the end of the season. In the wake of Rosenior’s sacking, a couple of managers have been linked to the job at Stamford Bridge, with Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola said to be the frontrunner.
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Speaking on Sky Sports, Merson named Howe as a perfect fit for the Blues, arguing that the club’s days of going for high-profile, experienced managers are over. The former Arsenal man suggested that the west London club would instead go for a manager who would be grateful for the opportunity rather than a proven manager.
“I hear a few Newcastle fans saying Eddie Howe is under pressure. I’d take Eddie Howe,” Merson said. “My problem is at Chelsea now and the way it is and the way it’s all run, I think they’ll be getting a manager who is grateful to be managing Chelsea, instead of a top drawer manager. The days of your Mourinhos, Contes, Tuchels, Ancelottis those top, top managers where the club are grateful for them being the manager of the club.”
“I think now they’re looking at managers who are grateful to come in and manage Chelsea because of the way they run the club and the way it is. Iraola is a very good manager at Bournemouth, but these kinds of managers will come in and look and go Chelsea have been outrun in every single Premier League game this season. How do you turn that around?”
For Merson, even if the Stamford Bridge outfit tries to approach ‘top managers,’ they will be reluctant to accept the role given the current situation of the club. He claimed the club lacks experienced players and added that certain players are not at the required level.
“This is not an ageing football team this is one of the youngest teams in the Premier League. For them to get outrun in every single game and top, top managers will look at that and think there is a lot to be done. They need a couple of experienced players and a few who shouldn’t be there. This is a big, big job and I’m not sure one of the big boys will take it,” Merson added.
Chelsea have built a team from YouTube clips – Merson
In his latest column for Sky Sports, Merson questioned Blues’ recruitment strategy, stating that the club appeared to build their squad on five-minute YouTube clips. He described the situation as a ‘circus,’ arguing the team was assembled through disjointed scouting.
“It almost seems like agents are sending videos of a player, five-minute clips, and Chelsea have gone, ‘I’ll take him. Oh my God, how good is he? Look at his clips. Look at him’. They’ve just got a YouTube team together. Like they’ve looked at clips and put it together and gone, ‘this team can play. Look at these.’ But it’s a million miles off,” he wrote.
Since BlueCo took ownership in 2022, the club have spent over £1.5 billion on transfer fees, but it has yet to yield the desired results.
Edited by Ezekiel Olamide