GRIPES OUT OF TUCH

IT makes me laugh to hear Thomas Tuchel saying his Chelsea team is tired... they weren’t tired when they were winning the Champions League, were they?!

You’re only tired in football when you’re not winning games – it’s as simple as that. Winning is, by far, the best medicine.

I think we have a situation in the Premier League now where there’s little point in complaining. Every club has problems with Covid, every club has injury problems.

If you’re Chelsea, then that plays into your hands a little bit – because they have a far bigger and stronger squad than just about everyone else, bar possibly Manchester City.

Now is not the time to complain about it and I think Tuchel (above) will learn a lesson that Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp were given when they first arrived in English football.

You moan about tiredness, you end up looking stupid.

I understand what he means, no side is going to be at their utmost peak physical condition when they’re playing 10 games in 30 days or whatever.

But, in my career, there were only a handful of times when I truly felt like that anyway. You rarely feel 100 per cent, but that’s part of life as a footballer.

Tuchel is a top-class manager and he’s already won a massive trophy.

He has also taken Chelsea to the first final it is possible to reach this season – and is still among the favourites in two more.

The title may be gone for them, but sometimes that doesn’t mean you are rubbish, or you have a bad manager. Sometimes you take the medicine and get back up to fight another day.