LONDON, Sep 7: Chelsea’s new American owners are proving to be just as ruthless as the man they replaced.
Thomas Tuchel was fired by the Premier League club on Wednesday, only one month into the season and just days after Chelsea’s recently installed ownership – fronted by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly – concluded a Europe-high spending spree of nearly $300 million in the transfer window.
Chelsea was renowned for regularly changing managers in the 19-year tenure of Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch who had to sell the London club after being sanctioned by the British government for what it called his enabling of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ‘brutal and barbaric invasion’ of Ukraine.
Boehly was the face of the consortium that bought Chelsea for 2.5 billion pounds ($3.1 billion) in May and, despite having little footballexperience, quickly made himself chairman as well as interim sporting director in charge of transfers.
Not only has he overseen a record splurge on new players, Boehly has now decided Tuchel – the coach who led Chelsea to the Champions League title last year – is no longer the right person to lead the team in the new era.
The decision to fire Tuchel, who was manager for 20 months, came a day after Chelsea surprisingly lost to Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 in its first group match of the Champions League. Chelsea has also lost two of its first six games – to Leeds and Southampton – in an underwhelming start to the Premier League that has seen the team’s new signings fail to gel.
Tuchel has been a frustrated and prickly figure after matches this season. In interviews after the loss to Dinamo, he said “everything is missing” when asked to sum up Chelsea’s performance and complained that his players “lacked hunger.”
“As the new ownership group reaches 100 days since taking over the club, and as it continues its hard work to take the club forward, the new owners believe it is the right time to make this transition,” Chelsea said in a statement, which also said Tuchel “will rightly have a place” in the club’s history.
British media has already linked Graham Potter, currently manager of in-form Premier League club Brighton, and Mauricio Pochettino, with the vacancy. (AP)
