So much for a new way of doing things at Chelsea. After the regular churn of managers under Roman Abramovich, the message had been of continuity and patience at Chelsea after the Clearlake Capital takeover headed by Todd Boehly. The consortium aspired, it was said, to be a Liverpool of the south, spending wisely on a plan conceived in partnership with the manager, Thomas Tuchel. Yet just 33 days into the season, in the wake of Tuesday’s 1–0 defeat at Dinamo Zagreb to open the Champions League group stage, Tuchel has been sacked. Abramovich’s earliest firing was that of José Mourinho, 39 days into 2007–08.
It’s been a long time since a Chelsea manager had been given as much say over signings as Tuchel was, and that creates an obvious problem for his successor. This is a Tuchel-shaped squad, nearly $300 million pumped into it this summer. It was Tuchel who wanted to get rid of Romelu Lukaku, who was loaned out to Inter. It was Tuchel who wanted Raheem Sterling. It was Tuchel who advocated for a reunion with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Tuchel who wanted Wesley Fofana. It was Tuchel whose skepticism about Jules Koundé led to the signing of Kalidou Koulibaly instead. And it was Tuchel who, repeatedly, vetoed the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Yet Tuchel, who handled himself with such grace in the wake of the sanctioning of Abramovich, aware both of the difficulty of his situation but also of the relative unimportance of Chelsea against the wider backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has seemed notably downbeat since the end of last season.
