Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel on Wednesday, just a month into the season.
Though the Blues are off to a tough start this season, the decision had little to do with results. In the club’s statement announcing the move, Chelsea losing three of its first seven matches this season wasn’t even mentioned.
“As the new ownership group reaches 100 days since taking over the club, 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,” a statement said.
Tuchel has had notoriously tense relationships with management at previous clubs, and that appears to be no different here.
Part of that tension stemmed from new owner Todd Boehly and his co-owner Behdad Eghbali hollowing out Chelsea’s management structure immediately upon arrival.
Chairman Bruce Buck: gone. Director Marina Granovskaia: gone. Technical and performance advisor Petr Čech: also gone.
With the club’s previous transfer leaders all having left, Tuchel was asked to take a more hands-on approach in the market. The German openly admitted he would prefer to simply coach the team.
“It’s not my favorite thing to do and in the long run the focus has to be on coaching because it is why I am here,” he said this summer. “But at the moment of course my help is needed and wanted and it is of course necessary that I step up and take the responsibility.”
Boehly, a novice in the soccer transfer market, was serving as de-facto sporting director, an arrangement that also clearly didn’t sit well with Tuchel.
According to the Telegraph, the most striking example of this came when Boehly pushed Tuchel to sign Cristiano Ronaldo this summer.
The report says that Boehly was “reluctant to simply take no for an answer from Tuchel, who, according to sources, seemed exasperated at having to explain his reasons for not wanting the Portuguese.”
Though the tension between Boehly and Tuchel grew quickly, the American’s initial plan was to keep faith in his Champions League-winning manager.
Tuchel was backed in the market to the tune of over £250 million, including his former player at Borussia Dortmund Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
One week after Aubameyang arrived, though, Tuchel is gone.
In some ways, it’s not surprising that the last vestige of the Roman Abramovich era was sent packing by the club’s new ownership. But the club’s quick reversal on Tuchel will cause some whiplash among fans and players — particularly those personally recruited by the coach this summer.
Now the onus will be on Boehly to get his leadership hires right. The club won a whole lot of trophies under Abramovich and Chelsea’s fans are unlikely to give Boehly much leeway if that run of silverware starts to dry up.
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