Chelsea’s concerns have been growing for more than a month. Co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali were in attendance in Zagreb last night and made a final decision overnight, with a press release drafted and sent out early this morning.
It follows insight from the dressing room that a host of players had begun to question Thomas Tuchel’s decisions and his behaviour behind the scenes.
Typically warm with his players, he had grown harsh and distant to those with knowledge of the dynamics at Cobham. Young players felt harshly targeted after they made mistakes, while the data on clean sheets, chances created and, most importantly, results since the end of last season were plain to see.
There was an unnamed fringe player who was earmarked to face Leicester, only to be dropped at the last minute. Tuchel usually explained such decisions but he did not in this case and it left the player feeling isolated and angry.
Similarly, Tuchel’s policy of explaining decisions to his players directly before the media began to slip in his final months.
In his defence, he struggled with the new ownership group, as he enjoyed a strong working relationship with both Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech under Roman Abramovich.
Without a sporting director, Tuchel was charged with helping the club make decisions on transfers and was involved in multiple daily conversations about who they did or did not sign. It took a toll on his ability to coach the team.
His communication was said to be growing increasingly poor with the new owners, who are keen to promote an open and collaborative club culture. His assistants tried to step up to cover, but it ultimately hurt the team.
The decision by the new owners remains staggering, given that they spent a world-record £273million on 10 signings for Tuchel over the summer.
Tuchel’s former Dortmund star man Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been at the club less than a week, playing just 60 minutes and having only one full session before his debut.
Romelu Lukaku’s relationship with Tuchel severely declined and it led to him being loaned back to Inter Milan for just a £6m a year after his £97.5m move to Stamford Bridge. Similarly, Timo Werner and Billy Gilmour were sold below market rate to help Tuchel regain some squad cohesion.
Once the dust settles on the decision to remove Tuchel, he will be viewed fondly at Stamford Bridge. He won the Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup during his time there and will be viewed as a great manager who simply lost his way.
