WHAT WENT WRONG

The writing was on the dressing-room wall for Thomas Tuchel long before he was sacked, football insiders believe. He wanted to be the coach, not chief transfer negotiator. He wanted to wear a tracksuit, not a boardroom suit. He wanted to hand Todd Boehly a shopping list of players rather then mould them into a formidable unit. “[Negotiating] isn’t my favourite thing to do and in the long run the focus has to be on coaching because that’s why I’m here,” Tuchel said during a pre-season tour in LA. “But at the moment, of course, my help is needed and wanted. It is necessary that I step up and take the responsibility.” Yet despite the £271m (R5,4bn) outlay, Boehly also had his own shopping list and even spoke with Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, about the player joining Chelsea. The arrivals of youngsters Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Casadei came after recommendations from head of youth development Neil Bath and his assistant Jim Fraser, according to Adam Newson of soccer site football.london. “And it was without Tuchel’s knowledge.”