Ronaldo row and constant blame game led to the axe
YESTERDAY marked 100 days of the new era at Stamford Bridge, 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, the century will be remembered for how it coincided with their first Chelsea sacking. For Tuchel, a ton of games in charge was where his Chelsea reign came to a seemingly abrupt end.
The ruthlessness of it — just seven games into this season and a faceto-face sacking delivered yesterday morning described as ‘a quick one’ — coming a day after Chelsea’s surprise Champions League defeat by Dinamo Zagreb, may appear premature.
Boehly and fellow co- owner Behdad Eghbali were in Zagreb to witness Tuchel’s last game but his sacking is about more than results.
Tensions have been building behind the scenes, leading to an irreparable breakdown in relations. And without good results, performances or 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 owners were initially very keen to work with the manager they inherited and support him in any way they could. Their near£300million spend on transfers underlines that.
In those early days, a new contract for Tuchel was one of the issues they wanted to address.
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’ they were after.
Senior figures at Borussia Dortmund and Paris SaintGermain, where Tuchel also had fallings out, might recognise the conclusion Chelsea’s chiefs have swiftly reached and why.
Chelsea’s pre-season tour was when cracks became apparent to a wider audience.
Tuchel, unhappily getting more involved in transfers after losing the trusted network of director Marina Granovskaia and technical and performance adviser Petr Cech, cut a noticeably frustrated figure while Chelsea were in America.
The wisdom of the new regime navigating a first transfer window without adequately replacing any of their know-how can, of course, be questioned.
And the scale of Tuchel’s frustration was known to those behind the scenes from his agitated mood and became crystal clear publicly after Chelsea were hammered 4-0 by Arsenal in Orlando in July.
Tuchel had a pop at his players, painted a gloomy picture of Chelsea’s readiness for the season and highlighted the number of players his London rivals had managed to sign.
His tetchy post-match press conference and strong words, particularly cutting about his attackers’ threat — ‘ it’s the same players (as last season), so why should anything change?’ — raised eyebrows among his squad and was 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 missing out on Raphinha and Jules Kounde to Barcelona was a source of annoyance for Tuchel, compounded by two of his squad, q , Cesar Azpilicuetaueta and Marcos Alonso, onso, wanting to follow low Andreas to Christensen the se Catalan club.
At one point, Tuchel is said to have asked his players outright who wanted to stay and who wanted to leave e and by was the left number fuming mmber who wanted out. ut.
Discontent hadad rolled over from the end of last season when sources said the number of players he was close with was diminishing, with several feeling unfairly treated.
In pre-season, questions were already 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 after the additions of Marc Cucurella, Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly.
But once the action got under way, the blame game the owners
felt Tuchel played, especially following defeat, was in stark contrast to the picture they wanted to paint of the club.
His highlighting of Chelsea’s coaching staff having to travel to Leeds by bus while the players flew was among the digs that caught the attention.
By now, things had gone downhill to the point that there was surprise from above that Tuchel had spoken openly about the prospect of a contract extension. It did not feature prominently on the agenda any more.
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 agent Jorge Mendes over Cristiano Ronaldo. Tuchel also wantedwantedRRomelu Lukaku to be kept k on until a replacementrepla had beenbee found.
InI a number of cases, they felt Tuchel was just making decisions on his own.
Armando Broja B and Billy Gilmour G were others ot they had differing dif opinions ions over, with Tuchel willing to let both leavleave. Chelsea’s results also pointed to the problems Tuchel had with his squad and that the dressing room had been lost.
Many managers can impress on the training field as, it should be pointed out, Tuchel has done successfully, winning the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup.
But not everyone possesses the human touch, people 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.