Liam Rosenior makes first Chelsea hire as he personally hands out new role

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Chelsea's new head coach Liam Rosenior has asked the club's caretaker Calum McFarlane to be one of his assistants in what is his first major call after taking charge at the Blues.

McFarlane stepped up to take the team in light of Enzo Maresca's axing on New Year's Day and led them for two matches. The first of those a credible draw at Manchester City before they were beaten at Fulham on Wednesday night.

The expectation was for the 37-year-old to return to his post with the team's U21 outfit but Rosenior, who was in the stands for the loss at Craven Cottage, has personally asked McFarlane to be one of his assistants, reports the Daily Mail.

The ex-Strasbourg boss has been impressed with how he managed the squad over the last week in light of the sudden change and he's now set to be rewarded with a promotion.

Rosenior's first training session is scheduled for Thursday afternoon ahead of his first match in charge, which comes away at Charlton in the FA Cup third round this Saturday. With McFarlane now working with the first-team Harry Hudson has been promoted to take over Chelsea's U21s going forward.

The decision to bring McFarlane into the fold no doubt came as a surprise as he made it clear on Wednesday that he expected to be back with the club's younger players. He said: "As I'm aware, we're back with the Under 21s tomorrow" before asking how they'd got on that night. They had been beaten 6-2 by Benfica in the Premier League International Cup.

Rosenior sat alongside Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali in the directors' box at Fulham and will now be tasked with addressing a poor run of results that has seen the team win one of their last nine in the league, which has resulted in them fall out of the Champions League places as a result.

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Maresca's departure was not only down to results with the Italian increasingly cutting a frustrated figure. He had hit out at people inside the club last month and was seemingly wanting more control - which he wasn't receiving. He also had issues over the club's return to play protocols for certain players.

Hiring Rosenior as his replacement has received mixed reviews. He is highly-rated but is relatively inexperienced having only held permanent gigs with Strasbourg and Hull prior to that. Chelsea have previously been accustomed to big name appointments, but their new ownership has taken a new approach when it comes to landing head coaches.

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