{"id":643,"date":"2026-04-21T12:13:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/?p=643"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:13:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:13:35","slug":"paul-merson-names-the-mourinho-type-coach-that-chelsea-could-appoint-but-he-fears-hes-already-taken-another-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/?p=643","title":{"rendered":"Paul Merson Names The Mourinho-Type Coach That Chelsea Could Appoint But He Fears He&#8217;s Already Taken &#8220;Another Job&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><em>This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Sky Sports<\/em> pundit Paul Merson says appointing Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola would demonstrate that Chelsea are still an ambitious club.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard has announced that he will leave the Cherries when his contract expires in June so he will soon be available, but Merson believes he may have \u201canother job\u201d lined up anyway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose days of Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Thomas Tuchel are gone now. That\u2019s unless they get Andoni Iraola. But then again, he would come from Bournemouth. If they had drawn or lost against Newcastle at the weekend, there would have been no hustle, no worries. But if he comes to Chelsea, you lose a couple of games, and you\u2019re under severe, severe pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd in any case, I\u2019d be shocked if Iraola hasn\u2019t got another job already. You don\u2019t leave a Premier League football club without knowing you\u2019ve got another job elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"sra_unit\"><link rel=\"stylesheet\" id=\"block-sra\" href=\"https:\/\/chelseanews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/snack-related-articles\/dist\/css\/snack-related.min.css?230424-120159\" type=\"text\/css\" media=\"all\"\/>\n<aside class=\"sra-group sra-related-list\">\n<h2 class=\"sra-group-head\">Most Read on Chelsea News<\/h2>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>Buy Chelsea tickets from StubHub here<\/p>\n<h2>Would Iraola be a good appointment?<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1076269219\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><br \/>The 43-year-old has impressed since replacing Gary O\u2019Neil before the start of the 2023\/24 season. He guided Bournemouth to their joint-highest ever Premier League finish last campaign \u2013 9th \u2013 having finished 12th in his first season in charge.<\/p>\n<p>It looks like the Cherries could secure an even higher finishing position this time around, with Iraola\u2019s men currently sitting 8th.<\/p>\n<p>However, as Merson rightly points out, Iraola has never managed a high-profile team. Before Bournemouth, he had coached AEK Larnaca, Mirandes and Rayo Vallecano.<\/p>\n<h2>Will Chelsea sack Rosenior?<\/h2>\n<p>At the moment, the line coming out of the club is that the current head coach will be in the dugout for the start of next season, even if the Blues fail to seal Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n<p>Former Chelsea manager Glenn Hoddle says he agrees that Rosenior should be given the chance to turn things around, but he <strong>expects him to be sacked if one thing happens<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more about the Chelsea First Team Squad for 2025\/26 here<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}