Liam Rosenior said he believes Chelsea can emulate Manchester United’s fabled ‘Class of ’92’ as they pursue a policy of targeting silverware with young players.
The 41-year-old takes charge of his first game as Blues boss in Saturday’s FA Cup third round away at Championship side Charlton Athletic.
Chelsea have the youngest squad in the Premier League this season — Tosin Adarabioyo is the oldest member aged 28 — and Rosenior’s predecessor, Enzo Maresca, hinted at a lack of experience within the group becoming a potential issue as his team struggled for consistency.
But Rosenior cited the example of United, who established their dominance of English football during the 1990s as David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs all broke into the first-team at the same time to become serial winners under manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
“People will throw this [at me] but I was a Manchester United fan and I am now massively a Chelsea fan,” said Rosenior, who managed a young group in his previous role at Strasbourg.
“I remember Sir Alex Ferguson was brave enough to put six, seven players between the ages of 19 and 21 in his team, in a title-winning team, because he believed in them.
“What they did is they grew and they won trophy after trophy after trophy. It was an amazing period in that club’s history. Without that bravery, that does not happen.
“There is potential for that here. There is potential. It’s not reality. There is potential for that. Speak about Moisés Caicedo or Enzo Fernández or Cole Palmer or Reece James — world-class players and still very, very young.
“That is the ultimate ambition for this club — to create that again. I’m not trying to say I’m going to deliver that and it will definitely happen. But I will not limit the ambition of the club.
“My job, I’ve shown at Strasbourg, I can work with young players, I can improve them and win games at the same time. There is no reason why I can’t do that here, either.”
– Liam Rosenior ‘not arrogant,’ but ready for Chelsea challenge
– Premier League January transfers: All confirmed ins, outs for every club
– Must-see games of FA Cup third round: Wrexham, Chelsea, more
When it was put to Rosenior that those young United players had senior professionals including Peter Schmeichel, Roy Keane, Eric Cantona and Steve Bruce to guide them, he replied: “Yeah and you’ll see in time what will happen here and the discussions we’ve had. The project is about winning. The project here is about winning games.
“It’s not anything but trying to deliver trophies for Chelsea. I’m going to be working very hard on that and I’m going to quote that question that you gave me. Whether it’s me at the club in three or four years or five years, I think this club will be successful for a long time to come.
“You have to understand that age is one thing. There’s also experience here as well. Enzo has won the World Cup winner and is a leader in the group. Reece has won titles and many things.
“I’ve got players here with experience. Their ages are maybe lower but I’ve got players with experience. This group has experienced winning things together. That’s something I want to use to move forward and create the motivation to win more things in the future.”
