"Liam Rosenior Faces Tough Challenge with Chelsea, but Turning It Down Isn’t an Option"

LIAM ROSENIOR can only say “yes” to the offer he can’t refuse.

After all, nobody in their right mind ever turns down a promotion — if you do, you are permanently doubted as unambitious.

Liam Rosenior is expected to be the new Chelsea managerCredit: PA The 41-year-old’s only managerial experience has been at Hull and StrasbourgCredit: AFP

Especially when you work for an American firm.

Yet the rookie, set to be next through the revolving door to the manager’s office, may end up being the one in the wrong place when the music stops.

For some 30 years, under a succession of different ownership models, Chelsea have defied all footballing conventions.

The ones that say stability is the only path to success.

No, not in SW6.

And those that argue success should bring certainty.

Not at a club where you are judged purely in the moment, rather than on what you have done just a few months before.

As for the argument that the manager should be the one who makes the decisions — rather than the board, or even the players — that went out of the Stamford Bridge window years ago.

might have made a rope for his own neck by his decision to challenge the Blues’ hierarchy — tigers have sharp claws, even more so when they are riled.

But the Italian was, admittedly unwisely, pointing out the folly and weaknesses of a policy that seems to view Chelsea as the footballing equivalent of a free-range farm.

The beasts are high-quality beef, no question.

They come from good stock, with a lineage to ensure the fresh meat is lean, ready to be brought to maturity.

And they are all allowed to roam the wide open spaces of Cobham before being herded together every few days to play.Yet once there is a high enough yield guaranteed, the pick of them will be sold at market for the best price the farmer can get.

There will be plenty of Chelsea fans who now suspect big-money offers for Marc Cucurella, Levi Colwill, Reece James or even Cole Palmer will be accepted — whatever the cost to the actual team they put on the pitch.

Yes, the Blues have been a walking, talking, trophy-winning machine for three decades, despite what would appear utter dysfunction in so many ways.

Indeed, for much of the past three decades, the one constant at the club was that the point where calmness seemed to be reached was actually the start of the next crisis.

Player power accounted for plenty of manager exits, even within a few months of them lifting silverware.

Think Ruud Gullit and Luca Vialli under Ken Bates, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Andre Villas-Boas and Rafa Benitez in the Roman Abramovich era.

Falling out with the bosses was costly, too. It happened to Jose Mourinho TWICE, as well as Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri and, in the first few months of the BlueCo operation, Thomas Tuchel.

Maresca was just the latest to fall off the conveyor belt, less than six months after Club World Cup glory completed the ultimate trophy full house for the club.

Rosenior, 41, is set to be the first black English manager at a Big Six club — Chelsea are never scared to break the mould.

And he is armed with insider knowledge from 18 months at Strasbourg, so must know the set-up he is walking into.

After all, he is beyond smart. Young, yes, with barely 150 matches in the dugout to his name, but insightful and intelligent.

His track record shows he is a man who believes he must offer a protective arm to his players.

Rosenior likes to be a father figure — even if he is considerably younger than many of their actual dads — and aim to produce an environment of trust.

At this Chelsea, though, it is the board and sporting directors who pull all the strings.

The manager is just seen as a facilitator of the club’s policies.

No more.It might work, of course.

Rosenior will not rock the boat, aware he has been handed the reins of a club where winning has become part of the DNA.

But young managers make mistakes.

And the youngest team in the top flight has already been making too many of their own.

Given all the conditions, it may require Rosenior to be more than he can realistically expect to be, just to keep afloat.

And that might prove impossible.