Strasbourg coach Liam Rosenior — reportedly the first choice target to replace Enzo Maresca at Chelsea — said on Friday that he was taking no “notice” of the rumours.
Italian Maresca left Chelsea on Thursday with the team struggling in fifth after just one win in their last seven Premier League matches, and after he reportedly held talks with Manchester City about succeeding Pep Guardiola.
Strasbourg are owned by Chelsea’s parent company BlueCo and Rosenior impressed in his first season at the club by guiding the side to a seventh-placed finish.
“I don’t take notice. If you’re a manager and you take notice of what’s being said in the media, you will probably go crazy,” Rosenior said ahead of Saturday’s trip to Nice in Ligue 1.
“My job is here. I love this club. I’m working to win the game tomorrow.
“Of course, I’m aware that there’s speculation, but I think that’s a reflection on the great work that everybody’s done at this football club.”
However, when pressed by a journalist on whether or not he would still be at Strasbourg in six months’ time, Rosenior was more vague.
“You cannot guarantee anything in life. In terms of interest from other clubs, I’ve had a lot of interest, a lot of approaches that I have always been open with the club about,” he said.
“My focus is always on the job that I am doing. But to say I’m definitely going to be somewhere or definitely going to do something, I don’t think that’s right because in life, things happen.”
Rosenior began his full-time managerial career at Hull City in November 2022, with the team 21st in the Championship having lost 10 of their first 18 matches.
They lost only six more that season as he guided them to a 15th-placed finish, improving on that the following season when they came seventh.
He then moved to Strasbourg and guided them into Europe in his first season. This campaign they are currently seventh in Ligue 1 and top of the Europa Conference League group stage.