- 17 hours ago
Under-pressure Rosenior on Chelsea struggles, champions league and Brighton
20/04/2026
Cobham training centre, Surrrey, Uk
20/04/2026
Cobham training centre, Surrrey, Uk
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:21Okay, good afternoon and thank you for joining us.
00:25We'll take the usual format today and begin with Umaroon Sky Sports.
00:28Off you go, Umar.
00:29Hi, good.
00:31Thanks for speaking to us.
00:32I'll start by asking about a couple of the players.
00:34Jao Pedrone wasn't involved in Esteban.
00:36Of course, unfortunately, he went along with Enzo Fernandes.
00:38How are they all and are you expecting them to be involved tomorrow?
00:42Jao will be a late call.
00:44He was out on the pitch today.
00:45We'll make a decision on him tomorrow morning.
00:47So that's a good positive because he'll be back sooner rather than later.
00:51With Este, he's definitely out for tomorrow, which is a real shame.
00:55And we're doing our further tests and investigation into his injury.
00:59And Enzo is absolutely fine.
01:00That's good to hear.
01:01And as for the rest of the team, they will come through that game okay?
01:04Yep, so far so good.
01:05Obviously, it's a quick turnaround.
01:07But no, no other news to report.
01:09Glad to hear it.
01:10And of course, I know it was a difficult result at the weekend, which leaves you seven voids
01:14off the Champions League spots at the moment.
01:15With an in-form Brighton to come to our uniform season, of course.
01:19Do you feel that any defeat from now until the end of the season could seriously harm
01:22your chances of finishing in the top five?
01:24We've made it very difficult for ourselves.
01:27We have to be honest and realistic with that, but what we can't do is give up.
01:31We have to keep fighting.
01:32We have to make sure we go to Brighton with similar attributes to what I saw against Manchester
01:38United in terms of our energy and our intensity and engagement to the game, which was good.
01:42But what we didn't do is we didn't keep a clean sheet in the moment and we didn't take
01:46advantage of the chances.
01:47So we need to be more clinical and more ruthless in both boxes.
01:50Yeah, actually on that, you spoke last week about how the performances have been there,
01:53but the results haven't quite been.
01:54Actually, since March, there's a statistic where your team have created 67 shots more
02:00than any other team in the league, even though the goals haven't quite been there.
02:03So how much does that speak to the work that you are doing on the pitch?
02:06And how can you make sure the end product is there going forward?
02:09Yeah, as a coach, you have to work to the data.
02:13You have to work to the process because you believe your process works in the end.
02:17But in this moment where we are, we need to win a game of football.
02:20It's the fundamental.
02:21That's what this club demands.
02:22And in recent results, they haven't been there.
02:25So data is one thing and metrics and all of those things.
02:28But the most important statistic is the result.
02:30And we have to go after that tomorrow evening.
02:33I know you've continued to be spoken about how much you still believe you can finish
02:36in those top five spots.
02:37Is there any sense of how damaging it would be were you not to finish in those places?
02:42I don't think you can think like that.
02:45I said in a previous press conference, we'll deal with each situation as it arises.
02:50At the moment, it's a difficult task, but we just have to focus on winning the game tomorrow
02:54against, as you said, a very good Brighton team.
02:56We have to make sure we train very, very well, which we have done today.
03:00And we go down to Brighton with the only focus has to be on winning this game of football.
03:04And last week, club owner Bedard Iqbali spoke about you and about the attributes he admired in you.
03:10He said he thinks they're behind you and optimistic of long-term success.
03:13How have you felt that support from the owner?
03:15100%.
03:16They've been supportive of me and our daily conversations, sporting directors involved.
03:21They've been magnificent in their support of me and the team.
03:23And yeah, we're aligned and we know we need to win games of football in the now.
03:28That doesn't go against what we're trying to do, which is give success, consistent success to this club long-term.
03:34Thanks, Uma.
03:35Alex?
03:36Hi.
03:37I just wanted to ask you about Levi Cole.
03:39Yeah.
03:41How was he after that and could we see him before the end of the season?
03:45Very hopefully, yes.
03:46You can see him before the end of the season.
03:48Levi's plan, it was a very low-level game.
03:5160 minutes was a really, really good start for him.
03:53We want him to be involved in the next game on Saturday with the under-21s as well and build
03:58him up
03:59because it's been a really bad injury that he's come back from.
04:01So his rehab's gone really well.
04:03He's trained today.
04:04He makes a huge impression on the group.
04:06You can feel his presence on the training pitch.
04:08I can't wait to have him back in with the group.
04:11What is easier to fix, the lack of goals or the lack of clean sheets?
04:17Good question.
04:19I think if you want to win games, you have to make sure you keep clean sheets.
04:22It's the hallmark of every team.
04:24We have players, outstanding players, who can score goals in key moments.
04:29It hasn't happened recently.
04:31But what has disappointed me has been the goals we've conceded.
04:34We have to give ourselves a platform in the game to give confidence to our attacking players
04:38that they can go and do what they do best.
04:40You can't win every game scoring two or three goals.
04:43And that's something that we need to address very, very quickly is to stop the goals we're conceding.
04:47Moises has been wearing the captain's arm.
04:50What's he like as a leader in the dressing room?
04:52Moises leads by example.
04:54I'm delighted that he's committed his long-term future to the club.
04:59Yeah, and he's somebody who leads by example in his bravery, the way he takes the ball,
05:03the way that he presses and tackles and runs some fights for the team.
05:06They're all the values that I believe get you success.
05:09Brighton, a club you know well.
05:11Have you had a chance to watch this first game back?
05:13Yeah.
05:14And what are their strengths?
05:14Yeah, I watched it live before our game and then obviously we've analysed that game
05:19and many more that they've played.
05:20Fabian's doing a fantastic job.
05:23It's a club that are built in a way that is built for consistency.
05:27They've got players who've understand the system for a long time
05:30and they're going to be a really, really difficult team to play against.
05:33Good luck.
05:33Thanks, Alex. Ian?
05:35Hiya, how are you?
05:36I'm okay.
05:37You mentioned there about bringing constant success.
05:40What's been the biggest challenge for you in the last four months since you arrived?
05:46I think the biggest challenge for any manager coming mid-season
05:50is you want to get to know your players as quickly as possible in your group.
05:54You want to know not just tactical things, technical things, what they're used to, their routines
06:00and you want to make sure that you don't adapt things too quickly from what they're used to.
06:04That's been a big challenge in terms of the amount of games that we've played,
06:09the training sessions that we've had, you know, and also making sure that they're understanding
06:14of what we want day in, day out, and that takes time.
06:17So that's the biggest challenge.
06:19In terms of the results, they haven't been good recently
06:21and that's something that we really, really need to overcome.
06:23Why haven't they been good recently?
06:25Again, when we go through, I don't want to talk for too long.
06:31I could do.
06:32No, no.
06:33What I'm saying is we do a lot of information gathering.
06:37We do a lot of, we look at data, we analyze the games.
06:42A lot of it comes down to moments.
06:44The Manchester United game sums up, they've had one shot on target.
06:48Well, we've had 10 men and it ends up in our net.
06:50Sometimes we have to make sure that in the key moments we stay switched on.
06:54And we haven't done that.
06:55And then what happens?
06:56The result changes the flow, the confidence of the team.
06:59Drops if you're losing a game in any team.
07:00And we have to make sure, going into the rest of the season,
07:04that we keep the back door shut and give ourselves a chance
07:06by scoring the first goal in the game.
07:08I've noticed in press conferences, pre and post matches,
07:12you use the P word quite a bit, process.
07:15With five, six games to go, trying to get into the top five,
07:19this constant success or success this season.
07:23Is it perhaps time to part the process till the summer for next season
07:28and just go all out to try and win football matches?
07:31However you do.
07:32We do.
07:33It's a process of how we work to win a game.
07:37That's a process.
07:38How we train, how we deliver meetings, what the tactics are.
07:41That's a process.
07:42The process is to win at every game that we play.
07:44So when I use the word process, you have a short term process
07:47and you have a long term process.
07:49For me, the idea from day one, I've said it from coming into this club,
07:53is to win now.
07:54It's simple.
07:55This is what this club demands and we're not doing that.
07:57So all of the noise and all of the things that people are talking about,
08:00it's normal in this moment.
08:02The process now for me is to win the game tomorrow
08:04against a very good team in Brighton.
08:07It feels like a big week with tomorrow and top five
08:11and then at the end of the week, the FA Cup semi-final,
08:13the silver way you could win the end of the season.
08:16You're obviously agreeing with this.
08:17It feels to you like a big week, right?
08:19It's a massive week.
08:20What you're in football for is key games.
08:23We've got a huge game tomorrow night
08:24and then we go into an FA Cup semi-final against the Leeds team in form.
08:28That's why you're in football.
08:29That's what we want.
08:29But now is the time for us to deliver
08:31and that's what we have to work towards.
08:35Nizar?
08:35Hi, Liam.
08:36How much is the FA sort of playing a factor
08:38because you fall away from the Champions League
08:40but you've also got those teams behind you?
08:42How much longer can you let this run go on for
08:45without sort of dropping into those places?
08:48It's not about where we finish or teams below us.
08:51It's about our standards.
08:53It's about our performances.
08:55We have to.
08:56We have to arrest this run of form.
08:57We haven't won enough games in a recent moment
09:00and that has to change.
09:01If you start thinking about the repercussions of that
09:03or somebody just asked me about Champions League
09:05and what that means,
09:06you're not focused on what you're doing.
09:07We have to focus on the game tomorrow.
09:09We have to focus on the way that we play
09:11and we have to make sure we win games of football.
09:12Is it important for you?
09:14Because you've got the support of the hierarchy here.
09:16I mean, we've heard them speaking,
09:17but the fans as well,
09:19there's only so much leeway from them.
09:22So how important is it to keep the fans on side
09:23by winning some of these remaining games?
09:26We have to win.
09:26That's what this club demands, rightfully so.
09:28That's what the fans expect.
09:31Yeah, so for me, it's about winning games of football.
09:34It's what football's about.
09:35You can't speak about the long term
09:36if you're not doing a job in the short term.
09:38And being really respectfully honest here,
09:41we haven't done well enough in recent games.
09:43That needs to change.
09:44And that's on my shoulders as the head coach of this team.
09:48In Badadeg Barley's comments on stage,
09:50he sort of mentioned stuff about the project
09:52a bit more as well as his support for you.
09:54And he sort of said that
09:55we're looking at more experienced players.
09:57You know, is that something that's been reflected
09:59in those conversations you've spoken about before?
10:01Yeah, I can assure you we've had many conversations
10:04from when I joined in January about what this club needs now
10:08and in the future for us to be where we want to be.
10:11And I think Badadeg made it very clear in his conference.
10:14He wants consistent trophies and consistent success for this club.
10:18That's what we've spoken about in the now, in the summer,
10:22and how we build.
10:23And we're all very, very aligned and we're very clear
10:25in what we need to do and what we want to do
10:27and what we have to do to get this club back to where it should be.
10:31Thanks, Nizar.
10:32Simon?
10:33Hello.
10:33Hey.
10:34There was footage of Wesley for Barna.
10:37Yeah.
10:38Were you disappointed in his reaction or have you had words with him?
10:42Yeah.
10:43There was...
10:43I've got sent two videos.
10:45One of Enzo walking past me
10:47and then it was cut before he turned around and hugged me.
10:49He shook my hand.
10:50I know how these things work.
10:52Wes is a very emotional character in a good way.
10:54I love him as a guy.
10:57He's not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve.
10:58I've spoke to him about it and he's just disappointed
11:01that we're losing the game.
11:02I don't think...
11:03I think he could have shown that emotion in a better way.
11:06And that's something that I've spoken about.
11:07But the optics on that is not the reality.
11:10The reality is I've got a really good group.
11:12We're working really, really hard for me and for the staff
11:15and for the club.
11:16At the moment, the results aren't going that way.
11:18And then people start reading more into it than what it actually is.
11:21Wes apologised for his reaction,
11:23but these are young players who are going to make mistakes in the moment.
11:26And so no issues in terms of selection for tomorrow?
11:29No.
11:30And you spoke about 100% backing from the club.
11:34What other ways is that manifesting?
11:38You talk about transcript talks,
11:40but is there any other way?
11:43Every.
11:44Yeah.
11:45I don't think...
11:45It's not that needing reassurance is about being open.
11:49It's about seeing where I've made mistakes,
11:51where we've made mistakes,
11:52where we need to improve.
11:53And having open, honest, challenging conversations
11:57makes the process better.
11:58Because if you're not honest and you don't hold your hand up to mistakes,
12:01you're never going to improve.
12:03You know, I have made mistakes.
12:05I'm going to make more mistakes.
12:06Every coach does.
12:07But with the guys here, how they support me,
12:10because we all want success for the club,
12:12we can be open and honest about that.
12:14So the less mistakes, the better, to be sure.
12:17But they've supported me in many different areas,
12:19in many different ways.
12:20And I feel the players understand that we're all very aligned
12:23in terms of what we want to achieve.
12:25Thank you, Simon.
12:26Thanks, everyone.
12:27Cameras off, please.
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