Wednesday marked 100 days of the new era at Chelsea, following their takeover by the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital consortium. Tuesday night was Thomas Tuchel’s 100th game in charge of the club.
Due to very different reasons neither will forget the landmarks in a hurry. For Boehly and Co the century will be remembered for how it coincided with their first ever Chelsea sacking.
For Tuchel a ton of games in charge was where his Chelsea reign came to a seemingly abrupt end.
New controlling owner Todd Boehly (right) has waited just 100 days before changing manager
Chelsea fans have been left stunned by the news that the club have sacked Thomas Tuchel
The ruthless nature of it – just seven competitive games into this season and their reign, a sacking delivered face-to-face yesterday morning and described as ‘a quick one’ – coming just hours after Chelsea’s shock Champions League defeat at Dinamo Zagreb, may appear premature.
Boehly and fellow co-controlling owner Behdad Eghbali were among those from the Chelsea hierarchy in Zagreb to witness Tuchel’s final game but his departure is far from purely results-related.
Long-running tensions have been building behind the scenes and led to the irreparable breakdown in relations. And without good results, performances and having his players onside to fall back on, Tuchel eventually ran out of reasons to be kept on.
Given how it started it is incredible to see how quickly things unravelled. New to football, Chelsea’s new owners were initially very keen to work with the manager they inherited on their arrival, construct the off-field team to lead the club forward and support him in any way they could. Their near £300m spend on transfers during the summer underlines that.
In those early days a new contract for Tuchel was one of the issues they wanted to get around to. But as the summer developed Chelsea’s new owners detected warning signs that left them feeling their partnership with Tuchel was not going to work long-term, there was no bright future ahead and that he was not the ‘team player’ manager they were after. Senior figures at Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, where Tuchel also had fallings out, might recognise the conclusion Chelsea’s chiefs have swiftly reached and why.
Chelsea’s pre-season campaign was when cracks began to emerge and become apparent to a wider audience. Tuchel, unhappily having to get more involved in transfers after losing the trusted network that included director Marina Granovskaia and technical and performance advisor Petr Cech that he so valued and missed, cut a noticeably frustrated figure while Chelsea were in America.
The wisdom of the new regime attempting to navigate a first transfer window without adequately replacing any of their know-how and instead attempt to learn on the job can, of course, be questioned. The real scale of Tuchel’s frustration was known to those behind the scenes from his obviously agitated mood and demeanour and then became crystal clear publicly after Chelsea were hammered 4-0 by Arsenal in Orlando in July.
The Blues made the decision following their 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday evening
Tuchel had a pop at his players, painted a gloomy picture of Chelsea’s readiness for the season ahead and highlighted the number of players his London rivals had managed to sign, something that would not have gone unnoticed by the new hierarchy who were handicapped in what they had been able to give him by their delayed arrival following the takeover.
His tetchy post-match press conference and strong words, particularly cutting criticism about his attackers and their lack of threat – ‘it’s the same players [as last season], so why should anything change?- raised eyebrows among his squad and were noted by those above him.
Tuchel also openly questioned the commitment of some of his stars. A number wanted to leave at this stage, a situation that was impacting his mood and that around the camp. Chelsea losing out on players to Barcelona such as Raphinha and later Jules Kounde was a source of annoyance for Tuchel, compounded by two of his squad Cesar Azpilicueta, at the time, and Marcos Alonso wanting to follow Andreas Christensen to the La Liga giants.
Graham Potter (left) and Mauricio Pochettino (right) are both early contenders to fill the role
At one point, Tuchel is said to have asked his players outright who wanted to stay and who wanted to leave and not been happy about the answer he received and number that wanted out. This was a continuation of the situation that had rolled over from the previous season when sources described towards the end of last campaign that the number of players he had a strong bond with was reducing, with his treatment of some of those who felt mishandled, a big factor.
Already in pre-season questions were being asked about what impact a poor start to 2022/23 would have for Tuchel. By the time it rolled around Tuchel appeared to be in an improved mood admitting that ‘seeing that we are succeeding in the market’ helped calm him down after Marc Cucurella joined Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly as major additions and captain Azpilicueta was retained.
But in a rollercoaster start once the action got underway, the blame game the owners felt Tuchel played, especially following defeat, was being noted.
In fairness, at times he held his hands up and included himself. But, in their view, it was often aimed at others including his players, ‘aggressive negatively’ and painted a picture in stark contrast to the one they wanted of a team. His highlighting of Chelsea’s coaching staff having to travel to Leeds by bus while the players flew was among those digs that caught the attention.
Serious cracks emerged during Chelsea’s tour of the US, in particular following a 4-0 drubbing by Arsenal
And now things had gone downhill to the point that there was surprise from above that Tuchel had spoken openly and encouragingly about the prospect of a Chelsea contract extension. It did not feature prominently on the agenda anymore. While there was hope expressed by some close to the Chelsea squad that the transfer window might settle things down once the focus was removed from ins and outs, much of the damage had already been done.
Having wanted to be on the same page as Tuchel, the opposite increasingly happened. During the summer he was alarmed by Boehly’s talks with super agent Jorge Mendes over Cristiano Ronaldo.
Tuchel also wanted Romelu Lukaku to be kept on until a replacement had been found before Boehly stepped into find a quick loan resolution with Inter Milan before that point so everybody could move on.
Tuchel was alarmed by owner Boehly’s communications with Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent
Chelsea owner Todd Boehly decided to sack the German manager before Tuesday evening
Chelsea’s sacking of manager Thomas Tuchel is set to cost the club around £15m
In a number of cases they felt Tuchel was simply making decisions on his own and ones that a club should be involved in rather than just the manager. Billy Gilmour and Armando Broja were two further players they had differences of opinion over. Tuchel was happy to let both move on, that eventually happening in the case of the former, but the club wanted them to stay.
His former Borussia Dortmund talisman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang did arrive last week but that was as much due to Barcelona finally agreeing to accept the fee Chelsea were willing to pay at the outset of those discussions as Tuchel’s influence.
As his reign under the Boehly-Clearlake consortium progressed communication between Tuchel and his bosses became another growing problem. Tuchel is said to have discovered on TV that Callum Hudson-Odoi was in Germany to finalise a move to Bayer Leverkusen.
Chelsea suffered successive away defeats against Leeds, Southampton and Dinamo Zagreb
Tuchel’s backroom staff are set to follow the German – who was on a salary in the region of £13m a year – out of the door
Meanwhile for their part, the owners found Tuchel difficult to reach at times and sources warned that the lack of contact was a sign of where things were heading. So too was Tuchel’s job security being pondered as decisions were being made about players’ futures last month – in short, the sense that some were considering the call they are making in the context that the manager may not be around for too much longer.
Chelsea’s results and performances also pointed to the problems Tuchel had with his squad and that the dressing room had been lost, adding to all the other issues. Many managers available to a club like Chelsea can coach and impress on the training field as, it should be pointed out, Tuchel has done successfully, winning the Champions League, Super Cup and World Club Cup.
But not everyone possesses the human touch, people and relationship-building skills and willingness to work alongside them that the club’s new owners want. That, as much as anything else, contributed to Tuchel’s Chelsea downfall.
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