Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly says a lack of shared vision with Thomas Tuchel led to the decision to sack the German as head coach.
It was last Wednesday – less than 12 hours after the Blues had been beaten by Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League – that Tuchel was called into a meeting at Cobham with Boehly and Behdad Eghbali and told he would no longer remain in charge at Chelsea.
The news came as a shock to the 49-year-old coach, who in his 19 months in charge oversaw a Champions League win, a UEFA Super Cup success, and a maiden Club World Cup triumph. And Blues supporters were disappointed to see Tuchel depart given the success achieved and how he guided the club through government sanctions and a takeover in the spring.
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Sources close to senior figures at Chelsea told football.london after Tuchel's sacking that the decision was not taken because of poor results and performances. It was down to a breakdown in the relationship between the new hierarchy at the club and over the summer.
And Boehly, speaking at the SALT conference in New York today, confirmed that was the case. He said: "When you take over any business, you have to make sure you're aligned with the people who are operating the business.
"[Thomas] Tuchel is obviously extremely talented and someone who had great success at Chelsea. Our vision for the club was to find a manager who really wanted to collaborate with us, a coach who really wanted to collaborate.
"There are a lot of walls to break down at Chelsea. Before [we arrived], the first team and academy didn't really share data, didn't share information about where the top players were coming from. Our goal is to bring a team together; all of that needs to be a well-oiled machine.
"The reality of our decision was that we weren't sure that Thomas saw it the same way we saw it. No one is right or wrong, we just didn't have a shared vision for the future. It wasn't about Zagreb, it was about the shared vision for what we wanted Chelsea to look like.
"It wasn't a decision that was made because of a single win or loss. It was a decision that we thought was the right vision for the club."
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