We've got Super Tommy Tuchel (no more)
Thomas Tuchel's time at Chelsea was marked two-fold: him managing his 100th game in charge at the club and his dismissal the day after...
When Frank Lampard was sacked as the Chelsea manager, fans were doubtful that whoever came in to replace him would be able to measure up. However, Chelsea fans were probably even more doubtful that in less than a years’ time, Chelsea would be Champions League winners. When Tuchel came to Chelsea, he turned everything on its head; his strong defensive style of football mixed with his clever tactical attack is something that moved Chelsea from ninth to third place in the Premier League in under four months. Under Tuchel, Chelsea made it to two domestic cup finals, won the Club World Cup for the first time in the club’s history, won the Champions League, won the Super Cup, had 22 different scorers, and out of the 36 different players selected over all competitions, 14 of those players came from the academy. Where then did it all go wrong?
The departure of key defensive players such as Rudiger and Christensen put quite a severe dent in Chelsea’s backline. Tuchel had worked hard to build up the defence to try and improve the number of goals let in during Lampard’s tenure and it cannot be denied that it had drastically improved with Chelsea only conceding an average of 0.72 goals per league game last season. New defensive arrivals made up the bulk of Tuchel’s £278.3m spend over the summer but Tuchel was given less than a week after the transfer window shut to be able to implement them properly into his system. Equally, Tuchel’s attacking front line has been finessed over the summer too with the arrival of old friend Aubamayang and Raheem Sterling. However again, Chelsea’s attack has looked worrisome in the opposition penalty box this season with only eight goals being scored in seven matches. When we are competing with City’s Haaland that has scored twelve goals alone this season, and Liverpool who scored nine in one match, Chelsea really do need to take the chances they get.
I think regardless of opinion, it is always easy to attribute negative parts of a club to the manager, and equally no matter how good the manager is there will always be things that they could do better. The footballing world has had a tumultuous few years with Covid, and Chelsea have had the added struggle of dealing with the Abramovich saga. Needless to say, not many managers could have handled the last couple of years with the intellectuality, composure and grace that Tuchel did. He has been a calming presence amongst fans, never shying away from uncomfortable questions but instead offering honest, raw and helpful explanations.
When contemplating successful managers in the Premier League, most people often choose Klopp or Pep, but it has got to be said that Tuchel has created an equally great legacy here at Chelsea. With big boots to fill, Tuchel came in and connected with the fans immediately by giving them something to unite for – the Champions League final - something that previous Chelsea managers such as Andre Villas-Boas or Maurizio Sarri failed to do. At Chelsea, if the manager cannot connect with the fans then they cannot succeed.
The reality is that Chelsea may never fix their ‘hire and fire’ culture that is so deeply embedded within the club. Many thought (and equally hoped) that with the Roman Abramovich era coming to an end, the new owners might take a different approach. We have seen at clubs like Liverpool and Man City that not only giving a manager the resources to build a fearless, competitive team will benefit you in the long run, but also giving them time. When Klopp first came to Liverpool it took him a while to build the Liverpool side we see today, but the mentality, culture and bond with fans that he developed in the meantime has been priceless and no doubt a key factor in Liverpool becoming one of the best teams in Europe currently.
The manager is there to build a winning team. In order to do this, there needs to be room for experimentation and thus failure. No manager can come in and pick the perfect team and deliver results straight away or consistently. They need to be given the final say in transfers, they need to be able to select transfers that fit their system of playing rather than the club’s ideological way of playing, they need to be able to experiment with formations to find the best one, they need to be able to lose games even if just to instil a balanced mentality in the players – they need to be able to do their job as a manager, and at present this is not the case at Chelsea.
Yes, we are a top-team in both England and Europe, but to be the top team, we need to put Chelsea’s future into the hands of the manager, not the owners, and create a stable environment for the team to both fail and grow. Chelsea was incredibly lucky to have Thomas Tuchel, and I can only use the word ‘foolish’ to describe the ending of our relationship with him. Only when I scrolled through twitter on the days after Tuchel’s sacking did I really realise how much of an impact Tuchel had on our fanbase. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find even one person that agreed with the sacking of Tuchel.
New ownership with a rather unconventional and tricky handover, and a string of silly defeats seem to be the resulting cause of Tuchel’s demise under Boehly. Most managers that come to Chelsea, come aware and accepting that Chelsea managers have a short expiration date, but also come with the hopes of being the one to change that culture. If Tuchel had been given enough time by the new owners, then I dare say he could have been the one to do this.
