Chelsea's next manager: Why it should be straight shootout between Andoni Iraola & Cesc Fabregas to replace Liam Rosenior

There is no denying that Iraola is the more logical choice at this stage. Chelsea's chiefs will almost certainly be going in search of a head coach with more years in the dugout under their belt following the farcical and inevitably early end to Rosenior's tenure after fewer than four months at the helm.

The Basque tactician would certainly bring that despite still being one of the younger, up-and-coming managers out there. He arrived at Bournemouth in 2023 after impressively earning promotion and establishing Madrid minnows Rayo Vallecano as a mid-table La Liga club, and he has repeated the trick with the Cherries.

Indeed, Bournemouth are no longer a team constantly looking over their shoulder, their sole objective for the season to merely survive, with Iraola delivering year-on-year improvement with a proactive, attacking style of play that has culminated in a genuine tilt at European qualification this time around, even soaring into the top five earlier in the campaign.

What Fabregas lacks in Premier League experience, he certainly makes up for in pedigree. The former midfielder played alongside and worked under some of the greatest players and coaches of all time - Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho, to name but a few. The ex-Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea star has taken cues from all of them, resulting in an open-minded approach to coaching.

"I won with Antonio Conte, I won with Mourinho, I won with [Arsene] Wenger, I won with Guardiola," he told The Coaches' Voice. "I won with every different style of play, so you'll never hear me say that one works and another doesn't."

Of course, that certainly didn't mean he was guaranteed to be a top coach himself, with footballing icons like Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Andrea Pirlo so far failing to get their managerial careers off the ground despite rubbing shoulders with the best in their playing days.

Fabregas, though, is delivering at the highest level, having guided Como - who were in Italy's fourth tier as recently as 2019 - to the heady heights of fifth in Serie A in 2025-26, following a first campaign back in Serie A that ended in a 10th-place finish. That is a remarkable achievement, even with the significant financial backing of the Djarum Group.

It has been reported that some Chelsea players were "unconvinced" by Rosenior and his methods, a man who had a relatively modest playing career primarily in the Football League and with bottom-half Premier League clubs. With no disrespect to the Englishman, a World Cup, European Championship, Premier League and Champions League winner, who was supremely intelligent as a midfielder, is far more likely to command respect.

Chelsea's logic, if Iraola emerges as their priority, is likely to be backed up by financial factors. The current Bournemouth boss has confirmed he will leave the south-coast club when his contract expires at the end of the season, making him a rare commodity as a desirable head coach who will be a free agent.

It means the Blues wouldn't have to shell out a compensation fee to his current employers, and that may tip the balance given the west Londoners have just had to pay Rosenior around £4 million after triggering a break clause in his six-year contract. That sum takes the total compensation the BlueCo ownership has paid out to sacked managers over past four years to around an eye-watering £45m ($61m). Fabregas still has two years to run on his deal at Como, so would almost certainly come at a cost.

Just a few weeks ago, the club announced the biggest pre-tax loss in Premier League history, with the £262m ($354m) deficit for 2024-25 completely obliterating the previous record of £197.5m set by Manchester City way back in 2011, and it comes despite the club bringing in £491m ($663m) in revenue in the same period.

It would be little surprise, therefore, if finances were a huge part of the hierarchy's thinking as they go in search of yet another head coach.

But if they put their heart over their heads, then Fabregas is a tantalising proposition. It is an appointment that would immediately get an increasingly alienated fanbase back on side, with the former Chelsea midfield maestro held in the same reverence as club legends Frank Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba at Stamford Bridge, having played a key role in the Premier League title wins in 2014-15 under Mourinho and two years later under Conte.

What's more, he seems to possess that prickly edge that has endeared so many of the most successful Chelsea managers to the fanbase, including Mourinho, Conte and Thomas Tuchel. The 38-year-old took aim at AC Milan and their head coach Massimiliano Allegri earlier this season after a frustrating 3-1 defeat, saying: "Those who focus on results will enjoy this game. But those who enjoy watching football will think Como wins eight times out of 10. We made 700 passes, they made 200 - incredible."

After the stunning victory over Juventus in October, his rousing, on-field post-match team talk when viral. "Only one word. I'm so f*cking proud of you," he yelled. "You need the f*cking mentality to win at this football club, in this team."

This is the kind of energy and intensity Chelsea fans will be clamouring for after the mild-mannered nature of Rosenior's public-facing persona and his so-called 'LinkedIn' soundbites; someone who embodies the occasionally nasty, never-say-die attitude that has been the backbone of the club's modern success.

In terms of their tactical compatibility for the club and a role that will require them to work with a host of young players, both Iraola and Fabregas seem like decent fits.

The former focuses on intensity, ball recoveries, swift transitions and hard running - something Chelsea have struggled with badly this season, shamefully being outrun in every single Premier League game they have played in 2025-26, which has unsurprisingly resulted in them sitting 20th for distance covered per game.

Iraola would certainly make their attacking play more proactive, with Chelsea guilty of failing to use the ball despite having plenty of it under Rosenior, resulting in the grim five-game goal drought in the league that contributed significantly to the 41-year-old's downfall.

"We try to make things happen," Iraola told Sky Sports in 2024. "Sometimes, it will happen against us, but you have to take some risks. Most of the games that we win are the games that are more open, where there are more chances, where we can exploit one-against-ones on the outside and find bigger spaces."

He added: "I think you have to take even more risk if the opponents are better on the ball, because in situations where most teams will feel the pressure, Arsenal, for example, will probably not feel it in the same way, and we will find it more difficult to recover the ball."

The Basque tactician is not afraid to back young players, either, playing a key role in Antoine Semenyo's meteoric rise before his January transfer to Manchester City and thriving within Bournemouth's model of finding young gems who can be sold for a profit, reflected in the fact they could qualify for Europe despite the defence being decimated last summer when Dean Huijsen, Milos Kerkez and Illia Zabarnyi all departed, as well as key attacker Semenyo mid-season.

Fabregas, meanwhile, loves to dominate the ball, and his approach would perhaps better lend itself to elevating Chelsea's current setup. At Como, his game is centred around a fluid 4-2-3-1 shape, building from the back and relying on the creative players to actually make things happen - something, again, that the Blues have been unable to do of late as Cole Palmer scratches around for his best form.

For what it's worth, the Italian side's most technically-gifted players have notably flourished under the Spaniard, with attacking midfielder Nico Paz seemingly destined for stardom and a return to Real Madrid, who have the right to buy their academy graduate back. In the words of GOAL's Italian football expert, Mark Doyle, "Como are basically the best footballing side in Serie A". That bodes well for Palmer, who would be given the freedom to thrive.

However, Chelsea's defensive frailties means there are question marks over whether Fabregas could implement his style without shipping too many goals at the other end, although Como actually boast one of the best records at the back this season. Asked whether he would consider changing his approach following a 4-0 thumping by Inter at San Siro back in December, he said: "I did think about it, but my head said no. I am pleased with this, to be honest. It might make me seem stupid or like a loser. After a heavy defeat, you learn more, you appreciate everything a little bit better. But Como are doing things the right way. You can approach a game defending with a 6-3-1 formation, or 5-4-1, but I prefer to lose 4-0 than do that."

As we've touched upon, the 38-year-old also claims he doesn't follow any single footballing philosophy, and therefore he should be able to adapt. "I don’t want to be the coach that always has the same way of playing, the same way of attacking and defending," he said previously to coach educator David Garcia. "Yes, you have principles and structures. But I want to be as dominant as possible, and nowadays to be dominant, you need to have as many solutions as possible."

Ultimately, it's likely to come down to a choice between head and heart for Chelsea's leadership team, who cannot afford to get this decision wrong as fan discontent threatens to boil over after yet another misguided and ill-fated appointment in Rosenior. If the club's hierarchy have any sense at all, then Iraola and Fabregas should be at the forefront of their thinking during this "process of self-reflection to make the right long-term appointment".

The logical choice, Iraola has demonstrated at Bournemouth that he can thrive within a framework built upon developing young players, surpassing expectations in the Premier League with what he has at his disposal without being able to spend huge sums on transfers. The question will be whether he can succeed in an elite environment where others like Graham Potter have failed.

Fabregas, meanwhile, is the romantic option. He is likely to command much more control, having played a huge role in building the project at Como from the ground up, but given time and backing both in the form of trust and finances, he could have a transformative effect, and his Chelsea connection means he would bring a feel-good factor to a fanbase that is losing all faith in BlueCo's ability to bring sustained success to the club once again.

Of course, there is the question of whether either coach will even want the role, which has proven to be a poisoned chalice for so many before them. It's reported that Iraola will require some convincing to take the job, while Fabregas said recently when asked about his future: "I am very committed to this project. You never know, but right now I think it’s very unlikely I'll leave Como. It's important that my family is happy, and if they're happy in Como, I'll stay."

If Chelsea truly want this to be the "long-term appointment" to end their woes, and they are able to persuade either manager that times really have changed, then neither, in truth, is a bad option. Both, though, will require the kind of patience that you are rarely afforded at Stamford Bridge. Whatever the outcome, it promises to be a fascinating summer of change.