I was just as confused as you when I got the news. Genuinely, the last thing I imagined waking up to. A man who led Chelsea Football Club to many triumphs in 19 short months. 6 finals, 3 trophies and hundreds of memories that many clubs could only dream of. It ended abruptly and unjustly in many peoples eyes, but at the end of the day, football is a business. As much as it's results driven, there needs to be a uniform fit. Let's look into that fit from both sides and where things went wrong.
Early Tuchel Time:
Talk about a tumultuous time at Stamford Bridge. A club legend in Frank Lampard just got sacked after a string of bad results that saw us sitting 9th, players were being frozen out of the club (Rudiger, Christensen, Alonso), and getting Top 4 was a pipe dream. It wasn't looking good at all. The morning of January 26th, 2021 marked the start of the Tuchel Era. In a few short months, he would captivate the entire fan base with his exciting style of play. Back 3 with wingback, 2 center midfielders and 3 "attackers" (quotes are self explanatory). He breathed new life into a squad that was playing haphazardly for months and had them playing for each other, but more importantly, for HIM.
May 29th 2021, a day that NO Chelsea fan will ever forget. Champions League winners for the second time in 10 years. That cup run is etched in the history books forever, after only conceding 4 goals the entire tournament. 12.5 months at the helm of Chelsea Football Club and Tuchel had racked up a Club World Cup and Super Cup to go along with that Champions League trophy. It was a match made in Heaven: Roman Abramovich, Marina Granovskaia, Petr Cech and Tuchel. Enter the Sanctions...
Things went downhill, FAST. All transfer talks were halted, contract negotiations were frozen along with Abramovich and Chelsea's bank accounts. We couldn't even sell match day programs. The British Government was more focused on punishing Chelsea than Abramovich, but that's a story for another day. All this being said, Tuchel was the spokesperson, manager and coach during those 5 months. He stuck by us after turning down approaches from Manchester United (lol) and Barcelona. The man loved Chelsea and truly felt at home.
Billionaire Boehly Era:
May 30th, 2022. 366 days since our Champions League triumph and, the new Regime was brought in. Todd Boehly and the Clearlake Capital consortium bought Chelsea for £4.25 billion. It was the end of the Abramovich era which saw us win every trophy we were eligible for during his 19 year reign. .
The relationship between Boehly and Tuchel started off very well, with reports coming out that he would be backed fully in the summer transfer market and frankly, he was (from an outsiders perspective that is). Tuchel handed Boehly a transfer shortlist that named 3 key players: Raheem Sterling, Presnel Kimpembe and Matthijs de Ligt. Sterling came in, Kimpembe didn't want to leave PSG after he was handed the captaincy, and de Ligt was bought by Bayern for significantly more than we were willing to pay. Naturally, Tuchel was frustrated but remained calm publicly. That was until July 23rd, 2022 after we suffered a 4-0 pre season defeat to a small London club that shall not be named. At this point, we had only brought in Kalidou Koulibaly and Raheem Sterling.
During his post match press conference, he was asked if he was concerned about the lack of goal scoring to which he replied: "Listen, it’s the same players, so why should anything change?... We have the same issues because we have the same players." That was the beginning of the end for Tuchel at Chelsea.
Now that we got most of the background out of the way, let's look at how this sacking went down:
With Boehly playing "Football Manager" this summer as acting Sporting Director, a lot was unknown. How would he conduct business? Who would he target? Did he even have any connections to agents? We were already playing from behind after not being able to put any leg work into any transfers before the window opened. It was a pretty scary start to this window. We were linked to EVERYONE. Impossible to keep tabs on it all. Boehly needed some guidance, which he wanted to lean on Tuchel for. That wasn't was Tuchel signed up for.
Boehly wanted Tuchel to have a say in the transfers. Every single transfer in and out, Boehly wanted Tuchel's blessing. Eventually, Tuchel got sick of that. He just wanted to coach his football club and let the people handling transfers to do just that, handle the transfers. Unfortunately that wasn't possible with Marina being let go early in the window and Cech leaving on his own a few days later. Boehly needed help so he didn't drown but, Tuchel offered less and less as the window dragged on. That just pissed Boehly off to no end and left a very sour taste in his mouth. Boehly stated that Tuchel was "uncooperative and a nightmare to work with".
As the days dwindled down in the window, we brought in some promising talent. Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana, Carney Chukwuemeka, Cesare Casadei and Gaga Slonina with Aubameyang and Denis Zakaria coming on the final days of the window. From the outside looking in, its a great window where the manager was supported. I truly wish that was the case.
As I stated earlier, Tuchels fate was sealed after his comments following the pre season defeat. It became clear that Tuchel wouldn't comply with the new culture at Chelsea Football Club. He didn't want to communicate as the new owners asked him to (stopped answering his WhatsApp messages), he didn't want to follow the analytic led recruitment style and further more, he wanted experienced players to win now; he fit the old Chelsea to a T, not so much the new one.
Enter Graham Potter (After extensive research, I found no relation to Harry, sadly). He had been earmarked as one of the next up and coming managers in global football after extremely successful spells at Ostersunds FK in Sweden, Swansea City and Brighton & Hove Albion. Rumor had it that he was next in line for the England job if Southgate decided to leave after the World Cup in December. Tuchels ignorance mixed with Potter potentially getting a new role forced Boehlys hand to act swiftly to bring in "his guy". Ironically, it was the Marc Cucurella transfer that started the Graham Potter infatuation. Boehly had a lengthy convo with Cucurella and his agent about the manager and his coaching style from a players perspective. Boehly was said to leave that meeting "gushing and enthralled" to make Potter the next Chelsea manager.
The manager Boehly had hand picked to lead Chelsea's new era of sustainable, smart footballing operations to mirror Liverpool and Manchester City, and building around their respective managers; has been dealt an extremely tough hand. I'm not sure how it will play out but I'm optimistic. Build the right structure, the right operations and the right squad and Potter could be the man to lead this new regime and be the face of Chelsea Football Club for the next 5-10 years. In the same breath, he could last 18 months and I'll be typing this same article again.
People will say "same old Chelsea", sacking another manager 19 months after he was appointed but, in my eyes, this is a completely different scenario. We sacked a manager who butt heads with his bosses and brought in someone to carry out the vision of the board and the owners. Potter, Boehly and Co. will have an insanely massive target on their back this season and for seasons to come. Will the pressure get to Potter, who has never finished higher than 9th in the PL? Is he punching above his weight class? Only time will tell. For any Chelsea fan reading this, be patient with him. Don't hold Tuchel's sacking against him. He took the opportunity to manage one of the biggest clubs in the world, as any of us would have in his shoes. Support him and back him until HE gives you a reason not to.
In closing, this sucks and I'm torn. I love Thomas Tuchel and his style as a manager. If I could emulate one manager, it would be him. He embodied what Chelsea Football Club meant. The Chelsea Football Club I grew up watching. He was everything Abramovich wanted in a manager and fit so perfectly. Unfortunately, neither are here anymore.
As a club, we need to move on. (I don't want to because this feels like a wicked bad break up where you're left with more questions than answers) This will be a lengthy and grueling process but we have owners who are invested emotionally and financially, as we saw this summer. We have a young core, with extremely promising young talent that could lead Chelsea to the heights of City, Real Madrid and Bayern for years to come. I'm excited to see where the analytics lead recruitment will take us. I'm excited to see this youthful revolution take charge. Growing pains are inevitable but I'm optimistic that it'll be well worth it.
You'll be hearing from me a decent amount this season. Be prepared to get sick of me.
- Your resident delusional Chelsea Fan
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