COMMENT: Stability or stupidity? After Wednesday morning's events at Cobham, it does appear this new Chelsea board remains steadfast on a course for the latter.
Take the emotion out of it. The humanity. And the decision still remains appalling. Sacking Thomas Tuchel barely a month into the new season. Barely a month into a new season under a new regime. A regime with no football experience. And also one that is yet to actually bring in any of that much-needed football experience. It's just bewildering...
The front office was cleaned out at the end of last season. Bruce Buck, Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech all axed. All that experience and know-how lost. And as of today, still to be replaced.
And now they've gone further, dumping the manager for someone who will obviously be a downgrade. Graham Potter has potential. He's done well at the level of expectations generated at a club like Brighton. But the demands of Chelsea are something else altogether. This is no sure thing. Indeed, far from it. Though pulling apart the decision to turn to the Seagulls manager is something for the future...
As we say, forget the emotion. Certainly it counts for little when it comes to Todd Boehly and co. For at the end of all this. When those final exit contracts are signed. It'll be Tuchel who finishes out on top.
The German will be £13m richer. His reputation intact. And he'll have the sympathy of the industry. Indeed, this column getting word that Jorge Angel Sanchez, the No2 of Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, is already watching developments closely. Tuchel, once he decides it's time to return to work, effectively will have his pick of jobs. The actions and manner of the decision may've blindsided him, but you fancy he will eventually come around to conceding Boehly did him a favour on Wednesday morning.
Results. A lost locker room. Gossiping around his love life. In the last 24 hours, they've all been put forward - curiously on cue - as reasons for Tuchel's sudden demise. We didn't get any wind of such claims in the lead up. But the scribes were all at the ready to push forward such lines within minutes of the dismissal being confirmed. This was a decision always in the works, apparently. A choice the owners were obligated to make 100 days into their rein, or so they said. As we say, the reaction from the press was curious. If this was the Saudis at Newcastle. The Glazers at Manchester United. Or Farhad Moshiri at Everton. Would they have received the same understanding...?
Among the reasons for the firing, one of the more plausible was that Tuchel's personality simply didn't fit. Stories of Tuchel refusing to participate in a Whatsapp group involving the directors do ring true. The German regards himself as a coach. It's why before the club's government imposed sale, Tuchel thrived. He said as much last season when contrasting his responsibilities at Chelsea and his previous experience with PSG.
“PSG and Chelsea? These are two teams that are at the opposite end in terms of and organisation," stated Tuchel.
"In Paris, I worked more as a minister of sport than as a coach, also managing the family and friends of the stars. At Chelsea, on the other hand, I can work more calmly."
So it was never going to work. Certainly not with this board, which were insisting the manager take an interest beyond the training pitch and first team matters. Tuchel had been there before - and he hadn't enjoyed it. But that's not to say he couldn't handle such extra responsibilities.
We've said it before in this column: Tuchel was absolutely magnificent in his management and leadership during the sanctions on Chelsea last season. While others abandoned the club and the support, most notably Three, who have since been welcomed back by Boehly, Tuchel fully committed to his role as a figurehead and spokesman. He shielded the players and staff and effectively took on the role as comms director as uncertainty and threats raged around the club's future.
For this column, that story about gossips inside the dressing room running down Tuchel's love-life don't ring true. Certainly not for the senior playing group. They know what Tuchel did for them last season, as epitomised by the comments of Toni Rudiger, now of Real Madrid, in the aftermath of their Champions League elimination at the hands of the Los Merengues.
“I like to trust the process and, with this coach, you can see there is a process," said the German. "Chelsea can be very proud to have a coach like this. The way he handled himself. The way he handled things in those tough moments, you have to give him kudos for that, you have to give him credit for that.
"With all this noise around and everything the way he managed us, to go out there in Santiago Bernabéu with all that was going on and to deliver something like this [beating Real Madrid away but being eliminated from the Champions League in extra time] you have to give him credit for that. For me, he is a phenomenal coach. He is up there with Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp."
Indeed. Just as Boehly is no Andrea Berta or Beppe Marotta, Potter is no Guardiola or Klopp. Removing Tuchel at this stage, with so much in flux inside the club, makes little sense. The prospect of a light touch and stability from this new board may've long gone, but there's a better way of effecting change than this.
