Liam Rosenior embarrassed himself at the weekend after the Chelsea v Newcastle United match.
Referee Paul Tierney standing at the centre spot ahead of kick-off at Stamford Bridge.
Then the Chelsea players surrounded him to do their pre-match huddle in the centre circle.
After the deserved defeat to United, Liam Rosenior choosing to defend himself and his players for choosing to do something so ridiculous, so cringeworthy.
Though to be honest, the Chelsea boss did then go even further in the embarrassing stakes when instead of admitting that Newcastle United deserved to win. Instead Liam Rosenior tried to deflect blame from himself and his team, by insisting that the defeat was down to a terrible decision from the match officials in not giving Chelsea a penalty. This despite Cole Palmer clearly standing on Nick Woltemade’s boot and then throwing himself to the ground to try and con them into giving a penalty.
What made it especially laughable, was that it was actually Newcastle United who were badly done to by the match officials. Somehow Paul Tierney, the referee on the pitch, as well as the VAR, failing to give United a clear penalty when Reece James from behind dragged Malick Thiaw to the ground as a corner was delivered into the box.
At his pre-PSG press conference on Monday, Liam Rosenior once again quizzed on these embarrassing Chelsea huddles in the centre circle, instead of doing it in their own half of the pitch, as EVERY other team does…
Liam Rosenior: “I think in terms of the huddle, it has been blown out of proportion to be honest. It is a small, small thing amongst many, many serious things that we need to address, such as the massive game against PSG tomorrow. In terms of the huddle, the lads have always wanted to show unity and togetherness, I think they will continue to do that. What we don’t want to do is antagonise or bring more noise on ourselves and we will make the decision on where we do that (huddle) on the pitch tomorrow.”
A Journalist then following up with: “There has obviously been people reacting in all aspects of the media, including social media, I saw you referred to by one wag as Glenn Huddle! Is it a distraction to carry on doing it in the centre circle?”
Liam Rosenior continuing with the stupidity: “I think it is a distraction for the media, for us, we never….when…the huddle was something the players wanted to show unity, they are a good group. We never wanted to antagonise anyone, or create noise. We have a huge game against PSG tomorrow, we have an opportunity to do something really, really special. We know we need to be perfect and I would rather focus on that.”
It just sums up what a total lack of class Chelsea have as a football club.
The London-centric media were predictably so unchallenging when Chelsea sacked yet another manager in Enzo Maresca, then made the hilarious move to replace him with somebody who had been sacked by Hull City, then in his only other job had been put in charge of the other club owned by the Chelsea owners. To avoid having to pay yet more millions out to get yet another new manager, Liam Rosenior given the job instead. Reading comments from Chelsea fans, they themselves saw it as a joke appointment and still do.
Liam Rosenior seemingly tries to put himself across as somebody who is a deep thinking intellectual football manager, but the longer it goes on, he just sounds a bit thick.
I loved the “Glenn Huddle” quip but when the journalist put it to him, Liam Rosenior incapable of having a laugh and saying yes we need to put a stop to this because we make ourselves look ever more pathetic.
Rosenior just keeps repeating that he and his players are doing nothing strange, that they aren’t doing anything out of the ordinary, that it isn’t about making a point, it isn’t about trying to wind the opposition up, it isn’t about them showing a lack of respect. The Chelsea boss insisting that it is just about his players showing respect to the ball (whatever that means???), that it is their way of showing unity and togetherness.
However, the fact is, that it is exactly the opposite of what Liam Rosenior is claiming.
No other team do this, all the other clubs when doing their group huddles, do them in their own half of the pitch. Chelsea are the only ones doing this in the centre circle and creating the ‘noise’, the distraction.
The thing is as well, Chelsea is rotten all the way through as a club. From the owners all the way down.
If Liam Rosenior is so feeble, that still shouldn’t have stopped Chelsea captain Reece James from himself saying enough is enough.
I can’t imagine the Newcastle United players ever embarrassing themselves in this way, insisting on doing a huddle in the centre circle. However, to still continue to do it when presented with referee Paul Tierney on the centre spot and forming a circle around him….words fail me.
Can you imagine proper people like Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn and Jacob Murphy as Newcastle United captains, doing what Chelsea captain Reece James did in forming that circle around the referee for a huddle??? I thought not.