CHELSEA SACK HEAD COACH THOMAS TUCHEL
Chelsea Football Club have parted ways with manager Thomas Tuchel, the club announced on Wednesday morning.
The news came a little over 12 hours after the team’s shocking 1-0 defeat to Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League. A statement from the club read: “Chelsea Football Club has today parted company with Head Coach Thomas Tuchel. On behalf of everyone at Chelsea Football Club, the club would like to place on record its gratitude to Thomas and his staff for all their efforts during their time with the club. Thomas will rightly have a place in Chelsea’s history after winning the Champions League, the Super Cup, and Club World Cup in his time here.”
In a move typical of the previous Roman Abramovich-led regime, new owner Todd Boehly sacks his first manager, just 3 months after taking ownership of the East London club. “As the new ownership group reaches 100 days since taking over the club,” the statement went on. “and as it continues its hard work to take the club forward, the new owners believe it is the right time to make this transition.”
Chelsea are currently on a poor run of form, having failed to win 4 of their first seven games to start the season, a factor that is thought to have contributed to Tuchel’s surprise sacking. However, according to Telegraph Sport, while the loss in Zagreb might have underlined Chelsea’s recent slump, his sacking was not based purely on results or Chelsea’s poor start to the season. Concerns had been growing upstairs that Tuchel was not the right man to lead the new era under co-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
As per Telegraph Sport, sources have claimed that there have been issues behind the scenes at Chelsea all summer and that Tuchel’s relationship with a number of players had deteriorated, translating to the run of results on the pitch.
The club revealed that Chelsea’s coaching staff will take charge of the team for training and the preparation of upcoming matches as the club moves swiftly to appoint a new coach. It is thought that owner Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital Group co-founder Behdad Eghbali will lead the search for a new manager. The club’s no.1 target to replace Tuchel is reported to be Brighton and Hove Albion manager, Graham Potter. Chelsea will have to pay a bill of about £10 million to buy Potter out of his Brighton contract and are well on their way to get their man as they have already been granted permission by Brighton to speak to the 47-year-old Solihull-born Englishman.
Chelsea will not be out of options though if Potter doesn’t switch Brighton for London. The club can also look to out-of-work options including former Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino and former Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane as alternatives.
Chelsea’s surprise loss in Zagreb on Tuesday night was Tuchel’s 100th game in charge and left Tuchel frustrated and “angry with himself.” The 49-year-old said after the match: “I’m angry with myself. I’m angry with our performance. This is a huge underperformance from all of us… I don’t really know where this performance today comes from. For me, it’s a lack of determination, a lack of hunger, a lack of intensity, a lack of repetitive intensity, determination to win duels and to actually do things at the highest level. At the toughest level… We are clearly not where we want to be.”
Tuchel lost the structure and support he had at Chelsea when sporting director, Petr Cech, and head of recruitment, Marina Granovskaia, left the club after the Chelsea takeover was finalized in the summer. The club also saw the exits of ex-Chairman Bruce Buck in June and former Head of International Scouting, Scott McLachlan, who left last Friday. Tuchel said last year that he enjoyed his job because it was “only about coaching” but the German was instead thrust into helping new owner/chairman/interim sporting director Todd Boehly with recruitment.
Chelsea spent over £270 million this summer, bringing in players preferred by Tuchel including former Leicester City centre-back Wesley Fofana, Brighton’s Marc Cucurella, and Tuchel’s former striker at Borussia Dortmund, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang. The team’s £271.1 million spent broke the transfer record for amount spent in a single transfer window by a team in the Premier League and the club eventually sacks Tuchel only days after the window closed.
Tuchel ends his tenure at Chelsea having reached 5 cup finals with the club, winning the Champions League within five months in charge, winning the League Cup in 2021, and finishing runners-up in the FA Cup in both 2021 and 2022.
Thomas Tuchel is now the second Premier League manager to lose their job this season after newly-promoted Bournemouth sacked their head coach Scott Parker last week. Chelsea’s next fixture comes away during lunchtime at Fulham on Saturday, with the club having already lost all three of their played away games this season.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Oleg Bkhambri. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.