Thomas Tuchel’s muddled thinking forced Todd Boehly to act

After record transfer spending, the new Blues’ owner sacked a stretched manager whose side remained strangely disjointed

 Photo : Steven Paston/PA Wire

"Thomas is a difficult person, but a fantastic coach,” said Borussia Dortmund’s chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke in November 2020. “We broke up because it just didn’t fit.” More than five years have passed since Thomas Tuchel’s reign at Dortmund came to an unceremonious end and now the manager who supported Tottenham Hotspur when he was a child because he liked the name finds himself out of work again.

Chelsea’s lacklustre displays this season despite spending a record £278m in the summer transfer window had left supporters questioning whether this might be the beginning of the end for the 49-year-old only 17 months on from their Champions League triumph at Porto’s Estádio do Dragão. But not many would have predicted the end arriving so swiftly.