The wording attempted to make the implication crystal clear. The decision for Petr Cech to leave his role as Chelsea ’s technical and performance adviser later this week, with a contract ending on June 30, was his own. “With the club under new ownership, I feel now is the right time for me to step aside,” he said. “I am pleased that the club is now in an excellent position with the new owners, and I am confident of its future success both on and off the pitch.”
But it is impossible not to deduce that this is both a ruthless clearout and calculated gamble from new owner, chairman and sporting director Todd Boehly, whose hands-on approach thus far could hardly be further from the delegate-everything stance of Roman Abramovich’s latter years in charge.
Marina Granovskaia, the director who had overseen transfer and contract negotiations while the club ate up and spat out head coach after head coach, will remain available for consultancy during the first transfer window of a new era. Yet there can be little doubt that Boehly is flexing in his new domain, while Thomas Tuchel embraces a greater say over the make up of his squad having previously said he was comfortable working with Cech and Granovskaia.
It may seem very easy to point to fault lines around how to handle the departed Romelu Lukaku - Tuchel had decided he won’t cut it, Cech had insisted up until recently that the Belgian striker could still come good - but these movements are about so much more than a £97m signing unable to hack the rigours of a high-intensity Premier League team.
It is also hard not to draw parallels between what is happening at Chelsea and what so many Manchester United supporters have spent almost a decade crying out for at Old Trafford.
A new owner brutally cutting ties with the previous regime and seeking to instil a new and coherent model, promising investment in personnel on and off the field? Sounds perfect for United, where even the arrival of another new head coach seems mildly tainted by confusion around the structure above him and the moving pieces with fancy job titles but a lack of clarity around the exact roles.
Chelsea, on the other hand, have been a well-oiled machine. Not faultless, as Tuchel’s numerous predecessors would point out, but there was a clear process above the head coach and it has regularly brought silverware.
In the past three years Cech has advised and served as a conduit, most notably leading the way in the signing of Edouard Mendy. He also fronted up during the European Super League debacle; emerging from Stamford Bridge to speak with supporters on the evening it was announced the club were pulling out.
Granovskaia was in charge of the money side of things; earning a reputation among agents and rival clubs as a tough negotiator but straight shooter. And combined with Tuchel in the past 18 months the trio have, for the most part, worked quite well.
For Tuchel there is certainly far more pressure now he has increased sway when it comes to recommending the players that he wants to fit within his system. Control over the squad’s composition may be a blessing and curse - if a new signing works out he can take the credit, if it backfires there is no one else to blame.
By comparison it has been a puzzle attempting to understand who is deciding what at Old Trafford and even now, with Erik ten Hag in position, you could solve an advanced level sudoku before fully grasping the chain of command above and around him and it still feels like a tweak to a structure that has long rotted at the core.
To tear it all up and start again is undoubtedly courageous from Boehly and it is hardly a groundbreaking development for a new owner to put his stamp on things. Whether it succeeds as intended is a whole other matter and talk of him looking at exploring American-style trades will naturally raise eyebrows in a market driven by hard cash.
Imagine the opprobrium if Joel Glazer outlined such a ruse.
