My 3 Thoughts on Chelsea Firing Thomas Tuchel
My 3 Thoughts on Chelsea Firing Thomas Tuchel
What's the impact on Christian Pulisic? What does it say about new American owner Todd Boehly? What comes next?
Chelsea, the reigning world club champion, fired head coach Thomas Tuchel on Wednesday seven games into the season—which has included losses to Leeds United, Southampton and Dinamo Zagreb in Champions League on Tuesday. Here are my three thoughts on the move:
• We wondered if this might be coming, but it still seems like a quick trigger on Tuchel once new American owner Todd Boehly decided to start the season with him. Even on the podcast we recorded on Sunday, I asked if Tuchel’s job might be in danger. But it still was jarring news to see waking up on Wednesday that Tuchel—who just won the men’s UEFA Champions League two seasons ago—had been fired hours after the loss at Dinamo Zagreb. Frankly, I don’t have any issue with the firing. Tuchel’s attack had struggled through the final half of last season, no matter who was playing. But I’m surprised that Boehly didn’t make a move soon after he took over as he swept away the technical, recruitment and business heads, including Petr Cech, Marina Granovskaia and Bruce Buck. By firing Tuchel now, Chelsea finds itself needing to hire a coach ASAP (candidates include Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino, among others) before a new sporting director has been hired. That’s not the order in which you want to be making these hires, and it’s the kind of thing that results in signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to fit with Tuchel and then firing Tuchel a few days later. But it wasn’t ideal either that Boehly had been running the recruitment side during the transfer window.
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• What does it mean for Christian Pulisic? Removing Tuchel is potentially a positive development for the American star, who needs playing time if he wants to be at his best for the World Cup in a little more than two months. Pulisic had clearly lost Tuchel’s trust, making just one start this season. And while Chelsea has a lot of games coming in the next two months, it seemed unlikely that Pulisic would become a first-choice starter under Tuchel in the biggest games. Will that change under a new coach? Maybe. What I can tell you is that no matter who replaces Tuchel, the Chelsea attack will almost certainly look better than it has in a while, and that’s a good thing for Pulisic and any other attacking player on the squad. A new coach will also view Pulisic differently than Tuchel, who never gave you a sense that he saw Pulisic as materially different than the 17-year-old substitute that he coached at Borussia Dortmund.
• Where does Chelsea go from here? If there were any doubts that Boehly would be a massive change agent in the wake of taking over Chelsea from Roman Abramovich, those are certainly gone now. The revolving-door nature of Chelsea head coaches that was the norm under Abramovich also shows no signs of stopping. So we’re left still wondering if Chelsea under Boehly really will attempt to become more like Liverpool’s ownership (more stability, targeted player spending) and less like Abramovich’s. Boehly’s inability so far to land a sporting director is concerning, and now that sporting director (whenever he or she comes in) won’t be able to hire the head coach. That means Boehly has inserted himself far more in the technical side of things than I thought he would or should coming in. That said, either Potter or Pochettino would be good choices to come in. There’s plenty of talent in this Chelsea squad, and you can’t help but think those coaches can get more out of the pieces in the attack than Tuchel was getting.
What are your thoughts on Chelsea firing Tuchel? What do you think it means for Pulisic? Who do you want to see get the job next? You can join the discussion in the comments below.
It’s crazy they let him spend a record fee (like $270M+) and then can him a few days after the transfer window closes.
As a Chelsea fan, I don’t necessarily hate the move… I don’t know if Tuchel was really getting the best out of a lot of the talent he had , but the dude won the UCL recently and had solid success. The timing just seems very poor. But it’s a nice change of pace for Pulisic, hopefully one that leads to more opportunities on his end.
Lagerway to Chelsea!