Rio Ferdinand has opened up on talks that he had with Thomas Tuchel soon after he was sacked.
The German was dismissed by new owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital five months after the group took over at Stamford Bridge. Tuchel had a tough start to the season and the Blues were massively underperforming in the league and had just lost their opening Champions League group stage game to Dinamo Zagreb.
The decision still came as a shock to everyone, and Tuchel has been on record in the past month to discuss his time at the west London club. "I loved every day at Chelsea. It came to an end too early for me. But it was out of my hands," he said.
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"This is also what you sign up for. You sign up for the good things if you’re a football coach, but sometimes things are out of your hands; you have to accept it and make the best out of the situation.
"Yes, I am upset. And I am sad because I think my job at Chelsea was not finished."
The 49-year-old won the Champions League just over one year before being sacked but had an increasingly strained relationship with the new owners over the summer. One man that was a big fan of Tuchel and had followed him closely since his time at Paris Saint-Germain is Rio Ferdinand.
The former Manchester United centre-back has revealed that he has spoken to Tuchel since his departure from SW6, saying, "I spoke to him immediately after it (his sacking), and he was disappointed because he absolutely loved it at Chelsea, loved being in London, loved his life, loved the club, and had a project he believed in 100 per cent."
Ferdinand is an admirer of the former Brighton coach though, telling his Five Youtube channel, “They’ve got a manager now who they’ve given their ideas to, and he’s probably said to them, 'yeah, that’s what I like as well' but this is how it needs to run from my perspective, and they’ve merged that together.
“I believe in Potter as a coach. Forget about everything else, in the way he coaches and the way he can make a team play football, you think this guy is a coach among coaches.
"It’s the recruitment then and the carrying of big players, and making sure it stands alongside the principles of the way he wants to coach. If they believe in the project long-term, you’ve got a good chance.”
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