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)
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in New York tossed out actor Blake Lively’s sexual harassment claims Thursday against actor Justin Baldoni over their roles in the movie “It Ends With Us,” but he left intact three claims, including retaliation, that will let a jury hear many of the allegations anyway.
The written ruling by Judge Lewis J. Liman in Manhattan came after Lively sued Baldoni last December, alleging sexual harassment among over a dozen claims against Baldoni and other parties.
A trial is scheduled for May 18.
Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios had countersued Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion. The judge dismissed Baldoni’s claims last June.
In his ruling, Liman determined that Lively was an independent contractor rather than an employee. On that basis, he said she was not entitled to bring sexual harassment claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law prohibits employment discrimination on various grounds, including gender.
As to retaliation claims, the judge said some evidence might enable a jury to conclude that Baldoni's production company planned not only to damage Lively's reputation but to destroy her career as there was fear she would file a discrimination claim. Lively alleges that a smear campaign has been “devastating for her reputation and career,” the judge noted.
In an analysis of the sexual harassment claims, the judge said Lively's claims had to be viewed in the context of the movie they were working on.
“Lively claims that during filming, Baldoni leaned in and gestured as if he was intending to kiss her, and that he kissed her forehead, rubbed his face and mouth against her neck, put his thumb to her mouth and flicked her lower lip, caressed her, and leaned into her neck, saying ‘it smells good,’” the judge wrote.
He said there was no question that the conduct would support a hostile work environment claim if it happened on a factory floor or in an executive suite.
However, the judge noted, Baldoni was “acting in the scene.”
“Assuming he was improvising, the conduct was not so far beyond what might reasonably be expected to take place between two characters during a slow dancing scene such that an inference of hostile treatment on the basis of sex would arise. At least in isolation, the conduct was directed to Lively’s character rather than to Lively herself,” he wrote.
“Creative artists, no less than comedy room writers, must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment,” Liman added.
Despite those findings, the judge said some of Lively's claims about sexual harassment may be put to a jury to support two retaliation claims that survived the ruling, including one against It Ends With Us Movie LLC and Wayfarer Studios, and a third claim that was left intact alleging breach of a contract rider agreement against It Ends With Us Movie LLC.
The judge noted that Baldoni once said “pretty hot” after asking Lively to remove her jacket, exposing a lace bra underneath, and that when he was warned that it was inappropriate and distracting to make such comment, he allegedly rolled his eyes and responded: “Sorry, I missed the sexual harassment training.”
Liman also cited a scene in which Baldoni pushed for Lively to perform a birth scene naked and then the scene was filmed over several hours without the set being closed to nonessential personnel.
And in another instance, the judge said, it was alleged that Baldoni volunteered that he had previously been addicted to pornography and Lively said she had never seen pornography.
Liman said it “may be fair grounds for an author or a director to discuss personal experiences, including those related to sex, as part of the creative process,” but the judge wrote that Baldoni may have crossed the line when he later announced to others on set that Lively had never seen pornography.
In a statement, Lively attorney Sigrid McCawley wrote that Lively “looks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it become easier to detect and fight.”
She added: “This case has always been and will remain focused on the devasting retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial.”
A lawyer for Baldoni and his production company did not immediately comment.
“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August 2024, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni.
Lively appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”
Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.
This combination of images shows Blake Lively at the London screening of the film "It 'Ends With Us" on Aug. 8, 2024, left, and Justin Baldoni at the world premiere of the film in New York on Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo)
