Brendan Rodgers was, according to sources close to the manager at least, planning to take the rest of the season off after his sacking at Liverpool. There was some talk that he could be joining BeIn Sport as a pundit, and that he might be waiting to see if the England job opened up next summer.

Whatever his plans and motivations, though, it didn't look as though a quick return to management was on the cards—and particularly not a quick return to the Premier League. That could all change if reports in the Belfast Telegraph claiming Chelsea are considering him as Jose Mourinho's replacement hold any truth.

It seems a stretch. More than a stretch, actually. Rodgers has never won anything as a manager, and outside of 2013-14's title challenge with Liverpool, his track record is almost entirely one that speaks of potential rather than achievement. And Chelsea have never been a club interested in taking on managerial projects.

Unless they're set to sign Rodgers before loaning him straight out to Vitesse Arnhem for a couple of seasons of seasoning in Holland, it's hard to give this rumour much credence. Still, Rodgers to Chelsea is now apparently a thing that legitimately exists thanks to the fact he started his coaching career with the Blues.

That, it turns out, is the main basis of the rumour—at least barring the Belfast paper being told something by Rodgers or his people—that Rodgers started out as a coach at Chelsea's academy and that there are people at the club who think very highly of him to this day for the work that he did there with the youth team.

There has also been some suggestion that if Rodgers were to be sought out, it wouldn't be as a full time replacement. Rather it would be as a stop-gap manager, joining the likes of Roberto di Matteo and Rafa Benitez as men who arrived knowing they'd only be in the job until next summer.