Chelsea owners are now admitting the sacking of Thomas Tuchel may have been a mistake – and the hiring of Graham Potter was overcompensation in a series of mistakes – but Todd Boehly and Co believe keeping Marina Granovskaia was politically impossible .
Thomas Tuchel was sacked last September and replaced by Graham Potter
The former Brighton boss was sacked seven months later after a disastrous run
Accepted by the hierarchy that a mistake could have been made by dismissing Tuchel
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Chelsea owners have admitted they may have made a mistake when they sacked Thomas Tuchel last September, it can be revealed.
Tuchel, 49, a hugely popular manager among players and fans, was sacked just a few games into Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s co-ownership tenure.
It followed an extensive summer rebuild, during which Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana all arrived for a big transfer. costs.
Graham Potter was hired almost immediately afterwards, although his reign lasted just seven months before being sacked last month.
Although the relationship with Tuchel was never going to work out in the long run, in retrospect it is accepted that it might have been better to keep the German coach for one season for a more orderly transition.
Chelsea owners have been revealed to have reservations over their decision to sack Thomas Tuchel
The German unceremoniously lost his job at the start of the season – a decision that pained him greatly
Graham Potter was recruited as his – almost – immediate replacement, although he also left soon after.
But as new owners, they wanted to move into a new era as quickly as possible.
Having fired Tuchel, with quite bruised relations on both sides, it feels like they overcompensated by appointing Potter because he was so adept at working with executives and owners.
Chelsea owners are said to still be valuing Potter and believe he can still prove himself at a top club, but the team’s form eventually got so bad they felt they had to step in and to change of way.
The effect of the sanctions on Roman Abramovich’s regime was more debilitating than generally appreciated; they directly led to the departure of Antonio Rudiger and left the club to catch up in many areas.
Although the new owners were criticized for firing Abramovich’s transfer negotiator, Marina Granovskaia, it became clear that it was politically impossible to keep an executive so closely tied to Abramovich sanctioned, given the war in Ukraine. .
Petr Cech could have stayed but made it clear he wanted to leave when Granovskaia leaves.
An early approach to have former Liverpool transfer guru Michael Edwards in charge for the summer fell through due to family commitments, meaning they were initially left without expertise.
It is insisted that Boehly never wished to step into that breach as interim sporting director and is now delighted to have stepped back to allow Stewart and Winstanley to lead.
The club are set to appoint former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino to take over this summer, with the Argentine certainly aware of the task before him.
Pochettino will bring with him assistant Jesus Perez as well as his usual coaching staff but won’t officially start in the role until the end of the season.
Pochettino and the club’s sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley discuss improvements to the squad, with a striker, midfielder and goalkeeper to be signed this summer, despite also needing to sell surplus players to balance the accounts.
Marina Granovskaia’s departure has raised eyebrows – although it is believed it would have been considered political suicide had she stayed
The number of signings Chelsea have made since the new owner took over has baffled many
Frank Lampard was named caretaker manager last month but struggled to ignite the squad
Chelsea currently sit 11th in the Premier League table with 43 points. If they lost another game this season, it would equal the 1997-98 campaign in terms of most losses in a league season.
Speaking after his side’s 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge, Lampard again lamented his side’s passivity on the ball.
“The second half was ours, control of the game was ours, obviously, in terms of possession, but in the first half we weren’t dynamic enough at the top of the pitch,” he said. he declares.
“Everything we talked about at the start of the game was too slow. Unfortunately, that seems to be intrinsic here the minute we play a lot of passes, but they shouldn’t break lines or threaten the opposition upfield.