THE PRICE OF MONEY

THOMAS TUCHEL knows that, until a few days ago, the budgets he and Eddie Howe had to work with made them the envy of managers the world over.

Tuchel had huge resources at Qatar-owned Paris SaintGermain and then again at Chelsea under Roman Abramovich, just as Howe has at Saudi-backed Newcastle.

But the Blues boss is adamant that having deep pockets does not guarantee success.

Firstly, because of Financial Fair Play rules and, secondly, because it is just as easy, maybe even easier, to spend badly as it is to spend well.

Tuchel said: “There are rules out there, so we could not buy anybody we wanted in Paris.

“If you spent the year before and so on, it’s not always that easy.

“The same here for Chelsea. Not so long ago there was a transfer ban.

“In the summer, we made a huge transfer but at the same time we sold for even more money, to have an even balance.

“It helps to have money, of course, for having a quality of player that you can push to win titles.

“If you have a lot of money you can also make a lot of mistakes.”

With money comes power and with power comes responsibility, something both Tuchel and Howe (above) now know well.

Because both have found themselves answering political questions – about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen, as well as their human rights record – the like of which no football manager could ever have expected to face.

Still, there is not always sympathy for them given they both knew who owned their respective clubs when they signed their contracts.

“Yes, we knew it,” added Tuchel. “But still in my case, we did not see this coming.

“I still want to strongly point out that we did not cause the situation and do not have anything to do with it, but still we suffer from it.

“OK, fair enough. But we don’t need people to feel awfully sorry for us now.”