It took them three months to break all the rules for healthy club operation. Chelsea’s owners took over in late May. This summer, the team from west London broke the English record by spending 270 million pounds – approx. NOK 3.1 billion – on new players. These players were brought in for coach Thomas Tuchel. Now, six days after the record was broken, the owners have sacked Tuchel. If this seems planless and chaotic from the American board, it is. Before, Chelsea was influenced by the impulses of Roman Abramovich, the oligarch from the east. Now Chelsea has become the league’s Wild West. STAR BUY: Tuchel and star signing Wesley Fofana. Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP The boss who employed himself The recent sacking is completely at odds with how the best clubs operate. Both Liverpool, Brentford, Manchester City and other smart teams in England do it roughly like this: First, they bring in a sporting director who sets the long-term strategy. Then they hire a coach who fits this strategy. Then they bring in players accordingly. Chelsea’s new owners reportedly wanted a new director when they took over, according to the English press; perhaps with the hope of copying these layers. But since then they haven’t even seemed to try. When the owners came in, almost all of the important personnel disappeared, including the technical advisor, Petr Cech, and the director Marina Granovskaia, who was behind negotiations and player purchases. Chelsea then lost all sporting competence between the owners and Tuchel. This was a challenge for the board’s front man, Todd Boehly. So what did he do? He employed himself. POWERFUL: Todd Boehly is the front man for the new Chelsea owners. Photo: GLYN KIRK / AFP He took on the role of “temporary” sporting director with the aim of signing players before the season. The money gallop that followed seemed special then. It seems much crazier now. Playing “Football Manager” Without a long-term strategy in place, it would have made more sense for Chelsea to wait with the big purchases until they had a clear sporting direction. Instead, Boehly has been behind a trade unparalleled in English football history. This despite the fact that he has never worked with football before. Boehly is an investor and co-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers (basketball) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (baseball). Nobody can accuse him of walking around the porridge: At the start, he quickly loaned out the flop Romelu Lukaku, and traveled around Europe to meet agents and presidents. Soon the purchases came in a row. Most fans love owners who spend money. EXPENSIVE: Marc Cucurella is one of several expensive signings made by Thomas Tuchel recently. Photo: PHIL NOBLE / Reuters But it all seemed a bit random. While the top teams have been plotting purchases for months, new names have been popping up around Chelsea every week. Gary Neville accused Boehly of operating as if he were playing the computer game “Football Manager”. According to The Guardian newspaper, several sources described the situation as “chaotic”. The craziest news came at the end of August, when the website The Athletic wrote that Chelsea had bid 50 million pounds for Southampton’s midfielder Roméo Lavia – and had it turned down. Lavia, who is 18 years old, had gone there for just 12 million as recently as July. Chelsea would therefore go 38 million above the market value. Was this really smart? The canceled reunion It was Tuchel who always spoke for Boehly. The coach, who won the Champions League with Chelsea just over a year ago, was a star among the fans and was reportedly consulted about the players he wanted. This gave Tuchel great power and an important role in how the stable would look in the coming years. He was almost a coach and director in one. In fact, Chelsea brought in striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who had scored goals under Tuchel before. The player talked about how great it would be to have a reunion. It reinforced the impression that Chelsea built up the stable according to Tuchel’s wishes. Now Tuchel is gone, without Aubameyang having touched a ball in the blue shirt. Chelsea have spent three billion kroner to support a coach they do not want. TIP: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang got just 59 minutes under Tuchel as manager. Photo: Darko Bandic / AP Don’t know where they are going In isolation, there are good arguments for getting rid of Tuchel. Chelsea have faltered at the start of the season, and the English press has reported discontent among some of the players. In addition, Tuchel is said to have had an increasingly tense relationship with the owners. The newspaper Daily Telegraph writes that he did not like being given such a big responsibility for the recruitment. Soon, Boehly is said to have wanted a coach who suits the owners better. In addition, it is important for Chelsea to reach the Champions League. If the owners felt that the ticket there was in danger, it made sense to change the coach immediately. DISAPPOINTED: There have been some downs for Tuchel this season. Photo: Carl Recine / Reuters But combined with the purchases this summer, the firing is still hair-raising. If the owners doubted Tuchel in July, they should have said goodbye straight away. A consumption of three billion means that the map has been laid out, that the car is going in the right direction and that you just need to step on the gas. Sportingly, Chelsea don’t even seem to know where they are going. Now they are going to hire a trainer who can say that he completely disagrees with the purchases they have just made. Big questions That sums up how backwards this operation has been. What if the new coach doesn’t want Aubameyang? What if he doesn’t like the new centre-backs? What if he’s happy with Ben Chilwell at the back and benching hog Marc Cucurella? And what about the athletic director Boehly will hunt? This director will be tasked with structuring the stable after the major purchases have been made. That is the price for everything to be done so quickly. Chelsea will now want a new coach by the weekend. Whoever it is, will take over the team for a period of matches almost every three days, before losing the stable during the two national team breaks before Christmas. The timing and planning is laughable. Boehly can be defended to bring in new players, a new coach and a new sporting director. It’s just a shame, for Chelsea, that the order is so wrong.
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Thomas Tuchel has been fired at Chelsea – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule
