Liam Rosenior is still living out of a hotel and expects to do so until the end of the season, with Chelsea’s head coach explaining how personal priorities such as house hunting are taking a back seat to his Blues duties.
After a whirlwind six weeks involving 11 games, Rosenior gifted his players four days of downtime after their FA Cup win over Hull on Friday and actively encouraged them to go abroad in search of sun, with Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro among those who visited Dubai.
It was their first time in 2026 without a midweek match, and Rosenior hopes his idea to refresh his squad will prove a masterstroke when they play Burnley at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Rosenior himself did not fly away during their mini-break, however, and neither did he use the time to view houses near their training base in Surrey.
‘The job never ends,’ Rosenior said. ‘Just a day. I managed to switch off for a day. For my staff as well. Not just the staff who have travelled with me. For all of the staff that work so hard and travel with the team.
‘It’s important for them to see their families. It’s refreshed everyone and we need it because now we’re coming back into a similar schedule again.
Liam Rosenior gifted his Chelsea players downtime but he did not use his to search for a house
Cole Palmer was among the Stamford Bridge stars who visited Dubai during the four days off
‘I’m still in the hotel. I’ll probably be there until the end of the season. I don’t have time. I’m focused on this job. My living circumstances aren’t a priority right now.’
Rosenior was not used to flying in luxury via private jet as a player as he said: ‘No, I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t get paid enough!
‘We’re very lucky to earn the amounts of money that we do because we’re followed by fans, by people who pay the television subscriptions. For them to have the privilege to be able to do that in their lives is great and it’s something that helps them in terms of their recovery.
‘I said to the players in our team meeting (on Thursday morning), this is the first time we’ve had a two-day tactical lead-in to a game since I’ve been working with them. The players have been magnificent in what they’ve given me.
‘(Thursday) was the first opportunity for us to talk about our style and what we want to put into the game and actually work on it and the players trained really, really well with it.’
Meanwhile, Rosenior says he would pull his players off the pitch and refuse to play the game if he heard a racial slur in a match in which he was managing.
It follows Rosenior’s strong stance in saying anyone found guilty of racism should be banned for life from football – with Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni being investigated by UEFA after being accused of racially abusing Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior during their Champions League clash on Tuesday.
‘If I categorically heard racism and nothing was done about it, I would take my team off the pitch, I wouldn’t play the game,’ Rosenior insisted.
‘I’m really lucky. I’m mixed heritage. My dad is black, my mum is white. What I learned in my life is everyone is pretty much the same.’
