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Liam Rosenior, Chelsea's head coach, faces Brighton on Tuesday amid a poor run, having lost six of the last seven matches. His connection to Brighton is significant, as it was where he ended his playing career and began his coaching journey.
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How Brighton had a big part to play in Liam Rosenior eventually becoming Chelsea boss
Liam Rosenior faces his former club Brighton on Tuesday in desperate need of a win following his Chelsea sideâs dismal run of form of late.
Chelsea have lost six of the last seven games in all competitions and have lost the last four in the Premier League without scoring a goal.
Tuesdayâs clash carries more meaning than just three points for Rosenior, however. The Chelsea head coach ended his career at Brighton, spending three years at the south coast club, who also gave him a start in his coaching journey.
The Blues boss is still early into his managerial career, with only spells in charge of Derby County, Hull City and Strasbourg on his CV before taking over at Chelsea. While he made an encouraging start to life in west London, their recent run of form has piled pressure on the 41-year-old to turn things around, something he has acknowledged himself.
âWe have to win, thatâs what this club demands rightfully so thatâs what the fans expect,â Rosenior said ahead of the game against Brighton. âFor me itâs about winning games in football, thatâs what football is about.
âI canât speak about the long term if youâre not doing a job in the short term and being really respectfully honest here, we havenât done well enough in recent games. That needs to change and thatâs on my shoulders as the head coach of this team.â
Speak to those who have been part of Roseniorâs career as a player and coach, however, and it is clear to see why he was given the opportunity at Chelsea.
The match is crucial for Chelsea as they seek to end a streak of four consecutive Premier League losses without scoring.
Liam Rosenior ended his playing career at Brighton and began his coaching journey there, making the club significant in his career.
Chelsea has lost six of their last seven games across all competitions.
Brighton played a pivotal role in Rosenior's coaching career by providing him his first coaching opportunities after his playing career ended.

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John Morling was Brightonâs academy director when Rosenior was still playing for the Seagulls, and helped give the former full-back his start in coaching as part of the clubâs scheme to have senior players coach the academy prospects, before Rosenior took up the role of assistant coach with Brightonâs Under-23 team.
âWe had a player to coach thing, where as ex-players would obviously start on their coaching career,â Morling explains.
âAs players are transitioning from playing to coaching, instead of just stopping totally, they can still add value as a player within the under-23 groups, especially in training, driving standards type stuff, whilst then obviously spending time with the coaches planning what the sessions are going to be like, whoâs going to be taking them, and then they start to take their coaching badges and start their coaching work, or start their coaching journey.
âHe was a senior player coming in to be an assistant, for starters, so he was very respectful of that.
âAnd he added value to the Under-23s with both the coaching staff and the players. He had good knowledge of the players.
âWhen youâre working in development, thereâs lots of unseen work, like extra stuff with players, obviously working with video staff, watching other sessions, researching. Youâve got to become a student of the game in order to do well in your coaching career, which he obviously was.
âAnd heâs very articulate. Heâs done very well in the media before he started coaching. He understands the game. Heâs very tactical. Heâs obviously doing his research, doing his own work, and heâs obviously done a lot of hours preparation before.
âHe e has worked hard and thereâs no doubt about that and heâs obviously a success, but heâs a very likeable person as well. I think if you speak to people at the club, whether youâre the academy secretary, whether youâre the under-23 coach, first-team coach, someone that works in the kitchen, people know that heâs quite infectious, which is a big compliment to him.â
Chelsea and Brighton might not appear obvious rivals but it has become something of a derby in recent years given the relationship between the two clubs.
Robert Sanchez, Moises Caicedo, Marc Cucurella and Joao Pedro have all made the move from Brighton to Chelsea for hundreds of millions of pounds combined.
Rosenior is just one of a number of Chelsea staff members to have benefited from Brightonâs model too, meanwhile. Former Chelsea boss Graham Potter joined the Blues directly from Brighton, while sporting director Paul Winstanley also made the switch from the AMEX to Stamford Bridge along with director of global recruitment Sam Jewell, formerly Brightonâs head of recruitment.
It is no surprise to Morling that Brightonâs success as a club has tried to be emulated by others.
âI think you have to have a clear vision of where youâre going, what you want to be doing as a club,â he reflected on Brightonâs growth the lower echelons of the football league to becoming an established Premier League side.
âEveryone has their input to make a successful environment, and thatâs continued over time, and, obviously, your vision and your goals change, and they evolve, and that keeps going, and thatâs an important part.â
Despite Chelseaâs efforts to implement Brightonâs methods into their own model, the Blues sit just a point ahead of their opponents ahead of Tuesdayâs clash with both knowing a victory would be massive for their hopes of qualifying for European competition next season.
You only need to rewind the clock 15 years to see that it was not always like this for Brighton, however.
âIt wasnât like that all the time, because, probably, 10 years, 15 years ago, we had seven different training grounds and there was a point where no one wanted any of our players, none of them were good enough,â Morling says.