{"id":693087,"date":"2026-05-25T07:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/693087\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T07:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:51:08","slug":"wayne-rooney-chelseas-european-absence-will-make-their-big-premier-league-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/693087\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Rooney: Chelsea’s European absence will make their big Premier League threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chelsea<\/a>‘s failure to qualify for Europe will help them become “a real threat” in the Premier League next season, says former Manchester United<\/a> and England striker Wayne Rooney.<\/p>\n

A 2-1 defeat at Sunderland<\/a> on Sunday brought down the curtain on a disappointing season for the Blues, who have sacked Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior along the way.<\/p>\n

While they began the campaign fresh from being crowned Club World Cup winners in July,<\/a> the result on Wearside allowed the Black Cats to claim the final Europa League spot at Chelsea<\/a>‘s expense.<\/p>\n

Chelsea<\/a>, who started the day above Sunderland<\/a> in eighth, slipped to 10th, to also finish a point and two spots behind Brighton<\/a>, who qualified for the Conference League.<\/p>\n

It is only the third time since 1995-96 that Chelsea<\/a> have ended a top-flight season in 10th place or lower.<\/p>\n

However, they notably recovered to win the title in 2016-17 having been in exactly the same position at the conclusion of the previous season.<\/p>\n

With Xabi Alonso taking the reins in July<\/a> as their new manager, Rooney believes Chelsea<\/a> will become a major force.<\/p>\n

“I think they’ll be a real threat next season,” Rooney said on the Wayne Rooney Podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Obviously having one game a week, and then with Alonso coming in, I think it’s exciting for the Premier League because I think he’s got the potential to be a top manager.<\/p>\n

“It gives him a period of time to feel his way into the club and get his ideas across. So I think it will benefit the football club.”<\/p>\n

Rooney’s old club Manchester United<\/a> had no European commitments this season and finished the campaign strongly to take third place in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Chelsea<\/a> advanced through the league phase of the Champions League this term before suffering their joint-heaviest defeat in a two\u2011leg European tie, losing 8-2 on aggregate at the hands of holders Paris St-Germain in the last 16.<\/p>\n

Rooney stressed that a less congested fixture list will only serve to benefit the Blues, who will have the advantage of more time on the grass together.<\/p>\n

“Pre-season this year for all the managers at all the top clubs will be disrupted, obviously, because of the World Cup,” Rooney added.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s where it will benefit Alonso, because he’ll have that time once the season starts to get his ideas across. The teams in Europe might struggle a little bit. It could be an extra three days a week [on the training pitch].”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea‘s failure to qualify for Europe will help them become “a real threat” in the Premier League next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-693087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}