Graeme Souness has labelled Chelsea owner Todd Boehly as 'mad' for his spending habits and has sent Graham Potter a serious warning over major Chelsea dressing room problems.
Boehly and compatriots parts of the Clearlake Capital consortium, such as Behdad Eghbali and Jose Feliciano, have come under severe criticism following their decision to wield the axe this early. Not only into the 2022/23 season but their tenure also on Thomas Tuchel, who they initially saw as the man to transition to a new era of the Club post-Roman Abramovich. football.london understands that tensions behind the scenes stemmed back to pre-season, and the Dinamo Zagreb result was seen as the perfect opportunity to make the change that had been planned covertly for many weeks.
The news that shocked the footballing world was confirmed early on Wednesday morning. A statement from the Club reads: "Chelsea Football Club has today parted company with head coach Thomas Tuchel. "On behalf of everyone at Chelsea FC, the Club would like to place on record its gratitude to Thomas and his staff for all their efforts during their time with the Club. Thomas will rightly have a place in Chelsea's history after winning the Champions League, the Super Cup and Club World Cup in his time here.
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"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's coaching staff will take charge of the team for training and the preparation of our upcoming matches as the Club moves swiftly to appoint a new head coach.
"There will be no further comment until a new head coach appointment is made."
Managers and pundits alike have reacted negatively to Boehly's decision in this situation. This includes Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville, who Souness joins in being hyper-critical of Boehly and the story that has led to this moment so far, four months into his regime.
'As I said in these pages on Saturday, Boehly decided that he did not need three people at the club who had been so successful at running it — Bruce Buck, Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech," he wrote in his latest Daily Mail column. 'Whether he got rid of them or they left of their own volition, at that point, he has to surround himself with football people.
'It will clearly take some time for Boehly to discover that it's not as simple as he thought, that recruitment is not just about spending large amounts of money and that recruitment is also the most important part of running a football club.
'At the risk of sounding boring, try getting Sir Alex Ferguson out of retirement, send him to the LA Dodgers and ask him to put a valuation on baseball players playing at other clubs, with a view to building a team. He wouldn't know where to begin.
'Boehly has laid the blame for Chelsea's poor start to the season at Tuchel's door, but he is the one to blame for some very questionable signings, paying way over the odds for Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana.'
Graham Potter is set to be the chosen one as talks on Wednesday in London went well. It is expected that an announcement could happen anytime in the next 24 hours. Brighton's latest hint indicates that their manager's heart is now set on managing a well-established Champions League club.
However, Souness, like many others, has warned Potter about the problems that exist within the Chelsea dressing room and how that will contrast to what the Englishmen has been used to not only at Brighton but also at Swansea and Ostersunds too.
He added later on in his column: 'This is what Graham Potter must now weigh up, as he holds talks about becoming Tuchel's successor. Potter has done a fabulous job at Brighton. But to go from managing the players he's got at Brighton to managing the players in that Chelsea dressing room, at this time, will be very, very different for him.'
Chelsea fans- do you worry that Todd Boehly has already demonstrated that he will not give Graham Potter the required time? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!
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