STRASBOURG, France (AP) — Liam Rosenior confirmed his exit from French club Strasbourg on Tuesday and strongly hinted he will be the next Chelsea coach.
Rosenior has been praised for turning Strasbourg, which is part of the same ownership group as Chelsea, into a force in French soccer after a seventh-place finish last season.
Rosenior told a press conference in Strasbourg he has an agreement with Chelsea but has not signed a contract.
“Everything is agreed, it will probably go through in the next few hours,” he said.
“It looks like I will be the next manager of that football club.”
Rosenior’s previous jobs include a stint as assistant coach at Derby to Wayne Rooney, who praised his “incredible” work ethic and attention to detail.
“He’s more than capable of going into Chelsea and doing a great job,” Rooney said on his podcast on Monday. “His detail, how he approaches day to day, he’s as good as I’ve ever worked with.”
The 41-year-old Rosenior has never coached in the Premier League.
Chelsea last week parted company with Enzo Maresca, who spent 18 months in charge.
Moving to Chelsea will bring much more visibility and pressure for Rosenior.
The fifth permanent coach since BlueCo ownership took over in 2022, Rosenior will inherit a team which is capable of high-level success but has lacked consistency. Chelsea is fifth in the league with a 17-point gap to leader Arsenal.
Rosenior could head straight into his first competitive game on Wednesday against Fulham, one of his former clubs as a player.
Interim coach Calum McFarlane laid out one potential challenge when he revealed some players had been left stunned by the decision to move on from Maresca’s 18-month tenure.
“Enzo was incredibly successful with this group and some of them were shocked by the decision,” McFarlane said on Sunday.
Maresca left after a reported breakdown in his relationships with club management and made cryptic public comments about a lack of support. McFarlane stepped in as interim coach to oversee Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
Getting the Chelsea job is a rare top-level opportunity for a Black British coach in the Premier League.
“This opportunity for me is something I can't turn down at this moment in my life,” Rosenior said, adding that the perspective of being reunited with his family added an extra incentive.
“It means that I can go home and see my kids,” he said. “I'm away from my children, I missed them. And I wanted to make the sacrifice of not seeing them worth it, with the success that we have here.”
Son of former player and coach Leroy Rosenior, Liam played in the Premier League as a full back for Fulham, Reading, Hull and Brighton over the course of a 16-year professional career, as well as for England Under-21s.
He returned to Hull for his first head coach role in 2022 and joined Strasbourg two years later.
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FILE -Strasbourg's head coach Liam Rosenior gestures from the touchline during the Europa Conference League opening phase soccer match between Strasbourg and Crystal Palace in Strasbourg, France, Nov. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz, File)
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Families whose loved ones died in the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school massacre sobbed in court while listening to frantic 911 calls during the first day of testimony in the trial of a police officer accused of failing to protect the children by not doing enough to stop the attack.
A prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that former school officer Adrian Gonzales arrived outside the school just before the teenage gunman went inside but didn’t make a move to stop him even when a teacher pointed to where he was firing in a parking lot.
The officer went into Robb Elementary only “after the damage had been done,” special prosecutor Bill Turner said during opening statements.
The judge overseeing the case and attorneys warned jurors that the testimony and images will be emotional and difficult to process. Among those expected to testify will be some of the victims’ families.
Tissue boxes were brought to the families as the testimony began. Some shook their heads as they listened to audio from the first calls for help. Their cries grew louder as the horror unfolded on the recordings.
Defense attorneys disputed that Gonzales — one of two officers charged in the 2022 attack — did nothing, saying he radioed for more help and evacuated children as other police arrived.
“The government makes it want to seem like he just sat there,” said defense attorney Nico LaHood. “He did what he could, with what he knew at the time.”
Prosecutors focused sharply on Gonzales’ steps in the minutes after the shooting began and as the first officers arrived. They did not address the hundreds of other local, state and federal officers who arrived and waited more than an hour to confront the gunman, who was eventually killed by a tactical team of officers.
Gonzales has pleaded not guilty to child abandonment or endangerment and could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if convicted.
Witness testimony will resume Thursday morning.
Defense attorneys said Tuesday that Gonzales was focused on assessing where the gunman was while also thinking he was being fired on without protection against a high-powered rifle.
“This isn’t a man waiting around. This isn’t a man failing to act,” defense attorney Jason Goss said.
Gonzales and former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo are the only two officers to face criminal charges over the response. Arredondo’s trial has not been scheduled.
Gonzales, a 10-year veteran of the police force, had extensive active shooter training, the special prosecutor said.
“When a child calls 911, we have a right to expect a response,” Turner said, his voice trembling with emotion.
As Gonzales waited outside, children and teachers hid inside darkened classrooms and grabbed scissors “to confront a gunman,” Turner said. “They did as they had been trained.”
It’s rare for an officer to be criminally charged with not doing more to save lives.
“He could have stopped him, but he didn’t want to be the target,” said Velma Lisa Duran, sister of teacher Irma Garcia, who was among the 19 students and two teachers who were killed.
Some families of the victims have voiced anger that more officers were not charged given that nearly 400 federal, state and local officers converged on the school soon after the attack.
An investigation found 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until they breached the classroom and killed Salvador Ramos, who was obsessed with violence and notoriety leading up to the shooting.
State and federal reviews of the shooting cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long.
The officer’s attorneys told jurors that there was plenty of blame to go around — from the lack of security at the school to police policy — and that prosecutors will try to play on their emotions by showing photos from the scene.
“What the prosecution wants you to do is get mad at Adrian. They are going to try to play on your emotions,” Goss said.
“The monster who hurt these children is dead,” he said.
Prosecutors likely will face a high bar to win a conviction. A Florida sheriff’s deputy was acquitted by a jury after being charged with failing to confront the shooter in the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018 — the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting.
Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press journalists Nicholas Ingram in Corpus Christi, Texas; Juan A. Lozano in Houston; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
Texas Ranger detective Jason Shea looks at photos of a phone as he gives testimony during a trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Texas Ranger detective Jason Shea gives testimony during a trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, left, stands with his attorney Nico LaHood during a break in his trial at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)
Family members attend the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
