Thomas Tuchel has admitted he has “laughed about myself” following his touchline bust-up with Antonio Conte last week.
And the Chelsea boss revealed “everyone makes fun of me” at the club’s training ground this week. The German and the Italian coaches were today awaiting news of their punishment from an independent FA commission. But the pair have already become the stars of internet memes mocking their confrontation at the end of a frenzied 2-2 draw.
And Tuchel said he had seen them - and even he found them funny. “Of course, we laugh!” he said. “It is very important to laugh about ourselves. I was laughing in the dressing room. It was the heat of the match, for me, still not that bad. A handshake and too long, too heavy. I admit it. No harm was done.
"He’s from my side. He spoke Italian to me so I never know. We didn’t insult each other. I think the thing would have ended if there were not 20 people around us that make the thing look much worse than it was. You are right. If you have a reaction like this, you need to live with the reaction. Of course I laughed about myself. I saw quite some (compilations). Everybody makes fun of me in the building as you can imagine but it’s ok."
Tuchel also faces an FA investigation into his claim that referee Anthony Taylor should “maybe” not officiate future Chelsea games after his performance on Sunday. Since then, VAR official Mike Dean has admitted in his newspaper column that he should have told Taylor to send off Cristiano Romero for his hair pull on Marc Cucurella.
The Chelsea boss said: “Hopefully, I am not too honest but if a mistake is that big and obvious, what’s the point in not admitting it for the whole season? I struggle a little bit to be fully impressed by the statement I have to say. It’s so clear and obvious, I cannot understand how a referee cannot make the decision that was the right decision.”
And the Chelsea boss wants more transparency from officials to show how decisions are reached. “It’s maybe not the referee to blame in this decision,” he added. “He was not called to the monitor, so we have to by all the passion and emotions and by all the consequences it had for us, need to admit that it was not the referee to take this decision. It was the VAR who got it totally wrong in this case.
Apologising or admitting, at least, I think it could be more transparent to make it easier. Maybe they could explain the decisions on the field to everybody. Why they take this decision. Maybe, to make it more transparent and clear what’s going on. Why a goal is not allowed, why it’s disallowed, why he is overruling his own decision.
"It is not the end of the process yet, it’s still necessary to have regular goals and irregular decisions overruled. There’s obviously still work to do.”
