Calum McFarlane has been named interim manager of Chelsea until the end of the 2025\/26 campaign, marking his second temporary return to the first-team dugout this season. The club confirmed the move as Chelsea continue a search for a long-term replacement following the latest change in the touchline setup.<\/p>\n
Rosenior, who was appointed Enzo Maresca\u2019s successor in January, is now the fifth permanent manager to lose his job in the four years of BlueCo\u2019s ownership. With Rosenior departing, Chelsea confirmed McFarlane will fill the now-vacant position until the end of the campaign.<\/p>\n
McFarlane\u2019s profile is rooted in youth coaching. He made his name within Manchester City\u2019s academy and became an assistant manager of the Citizens\u2019 U-18 squad in 2021. He remained in that role until a move to Southampton in 2023, where he spent two years managing the club\u2019s U-18 side and then the U-21s.<\/p>\n
He later joined Chelsea\u2019s academy and went on to manage the U-21s in 2025\u201326. The 40-year-old was suddenly thrust onto the senior touchline earlier in the season following Maresca\u2019s sudden departure and led the first team for two matches at the start of the year before Rosenior took over. Instead of returning to the U-21 side after Rosenior\u2019s appointment, McFarlane stayed with the first team as an assistant on Rosenior\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n
The sample of McFarlane\u2019s work with the senior side is small and produced mixed outcomes. He oversaw the Blues\u2019 1\u20131 draw with Manchester City on Jan. 4 and then a 2\u20131 defeat to Fulham on Jan. 7. The draw at the Etihad featured a last-gasp winner from Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez to snatch a point. Chelsea\u2019s next meeting with Manchester City in April resulted in a 3\u20130 home defeat.<\/p>\n
The Fulham match highlighted the volatility of those early games: Marc Cucurella was sent off 22 minutes into the contest, the Blues fell behind, but Liam Delap\u2019s equalizer in the 72nd minute briefly steadied the performance. McFarlane now faces the task of steadying a turbulent season while the club evaluates its long-term managerial direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Calum McFarlane returns as Chelsea interim manager for the remainder of the 2025\/26 season. Reviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1383,969],"tags":[1446,1530],"class_list":["post-12670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-chelsea-news","category-premier-league","tag-academy","tag-caretaker-manager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}