The Croatian Air was thick with the smell of scapegoat on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday morning Thomas Tuchel was thrown to the wolves. Surrender to Dinamo Zagreb would be the last chapter in his Chelsea career. It does seem harsh - and unnecessarily impatient. Tuchel had been an outstanding ambassador - dealing with war, morality, humanity and politics - last season, as the frontman for a club lurching from crisis to crisis.
So when Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali assumed control of Chelsea from Roman Abramovich, it looked as though Tuchel would be freed up to do what he does best: Coach players.
Instead the new Blues ownership fired the club’s chief negotiator, Marina Granovskaia and, rather than replacing her with a Michael Emanalo or a Michael Edwards, they roped Tuchel in to help them hunt players.
On the one hand you can understand it. Boehly and Edgbali needed to cut ties with the toxic Abramovich regime. Chairman Bruce Buck, chief executive Guy Laurence and Technical and Performance Director Petr Cech had also gone.
Granovskaia’s previously unblemished transfer record had also taken some hits. Kepa, signed for £72million, had flopped. Romelu Lukaku, at £100million, had gone back to Inter Milan on loan. Antonio Rudiger, arguably the club’s best defender, had left for Real Madrid for nothing.
On the other, Tuchel clearly was struggling with juggling two roles. Out in California during pre-season, he repeatedly told us journalists that he’d preferred to have been on the training pitch working with players. The ultra-consistency of City and Liverpool had made that more of a priority than ever, he said.
But the lack of an experienced operator to facilitate that was there for all to see. Barcelona routinely pulled Chelsea’s pants down, beating the FA Cup finalists to a string of their top targets, including defender Jules Kounde, winger Raphinha and Poland striker Robert Lewandowski.
While the likes of City, Arsenal and even Spurs started the season with settled squads having done their business, Chelsea were still floundering. Bayern beat them to Matthijs de Ligt. City kept them from Nathan Ake and Inter kept them from Milan Skriniar.
Tuchel revealed, out in California, to us that a delegation of senior players had come to him, anxious about the lack of signings. Even after the transfer ball had started rolling, Chelsea’s pre-season was further hampered by N’golo Kante’s inability to travel as he would not take the Covid jab.
The 31-year-old has not looked up to speed this season and has featured only twice, in the struggle to beat Everton and the 2-2 draw with Spurs. Denis Zakaria turned up on deadline day but even the Blues’ most die-hard supporters would admit - he is no Kante.
In Florida, on the final leg of the US tour, it emerged captain Cesar Azpilicueta wanted to go to Barcelona. Tuchel admitted begging him to stay. It took a lucrative contract extension to persuade the 33-year-old to do so.
Yet Azpilicueta was far from the only player who wanted out. Tuchel admitted as much after his side were hammered by Arsenal 4-0. They were no longer committed. Some of them would get their moves.
Marcos Alonso joined Azpilicueta at Barca. Timo Werner quit for a return to RB Leipzig. Callum Hudson-Odoi is now at Bayer Leverkusen after learning the club wanted £60million Everton winger Anthony Gordon - at 21, the same age as him.
Some were blocked from leaving: Hakim Ziyech wanted to go to AC Milan. Christian Pulisic had interest from Newcastle after seeing Raheem Sterling come in to take his position.
The rest were unfit or under-prepared. Even £70million Wesley Fofana, who chased Tuesday night’s goalscorer Mislav Orsic, in vain, will have been ruing his decision not to take part in Leicester’s pre-season. Pierre-Emerick deserves credit for wanting to even be involved in Croatia after he and his family were tied up and robbed in Spain last week. But the club were forced to turn to him after struggling in their search to replace Lukaku.
Tuchel led Chelsea to the Champions League with the best defence in the competition two seasons ago. During his first 50 games after succeeding Frank Lampard his Blues team conceded 24 times. During Tuchel’s last 50 they let in 33. They’ve not kept a clean sheet in six games - and after spending over a quarter of a billion pounds they look worse than they did before.
So on the face of it, the owners have a case. But by not bringing in a Sporting Director straight away, they too have one or two tricky judgment calls to answer for.
