Chelsea Football Club has sacked the club’s manager Thomas Tuchel after an inconsistent run of games in the 2022-2023 season making him the second Premier League coach to be sacked this season after Scott Parker of Bournemouth.
The club announced Thomas Tuchel’s exit from the club on Wednesday, September 7, 2022, hours after he led Chelsea to suffer a shocking 1-0 defeat at the hands of Dinamo Zagreb in the 2022-2023 UEFA Champions League opener.
A statement on the club’s official website read: “On behalf of everyone at Chelsea FC, the Club would like to place on record its gratitude to Thomas and his staff for all their efforts during their time with the Club. Thomas will rightly have a place in Chelsea’s history after winning the Champions League, the Super Cup and Club World Cup in his time here.
“As the new ownership group reaches 100 days since taking over the Club, and as it continues its hard work to take the club forward, the new owners believe it is the right time to make this transition.
“Chelsea’s coaching staff will take charge of the team for training and the preparation of our upcoming matches as the Club moves swiftly to appoint a new head coach.”
1 – Just 350 days into his tenure as Chelsea boss, Thomas Tuchel became the first manager in the club's history to guide the Blues to the final of each of the League Cup, FA Cup and European Cup/UEFA Champions League. Specialist. pic.twitter.com/NIGll2RlEB
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 7, 2022
Why Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel?
Thomas Tuchel stunned the world of football when he led Chelsea to the Champions League final during the 2020-2021 season and beat Manchester City to win the prestigious title for the first time in his managerial career and the second time in the history of Chelsea.
He was expected to build on the success by achieving more during the 2021-2022 season especially after signing Romelu Lukaku for a club-record transfer fee of €113 million in the summer of 2021.
Unfortunately for Lukaku and Chelsea, coach Thomas Tuchel failed to come up with a system that could make the Belgian striker productive at the Premier League club.
Hence, Lukaku struggled at Chelsea and the club also struggled to finish in the top four while they failed to win the FA Cup and the EFL Cup after making it to the finals of the tournaments.
Apart from that, Chelsea, despite being the defending champions of the Champions League last season, crashed out of the tournament in the quarter-final stage of the competition.
After an inconsistent 2021-2022 season which saw Lukaku return to Inter Milan on loan and Timo Werner return to RB Leipzig on a permanent deal in the 2022 summer transfer window, Chelsea had a terrible preseason campaign. It was so bad for Chelsea that they lost to Major League Soccer club, Charlotte via penalties. The club’s London rivals, Arsenal slammed coach Tuchel and his team 4-0 in Florida Cup.
These performances forced the club’s new owner, Todd Boehly to begin massive investment in singing new players ahead of the 2022-2023 Premier League season which began with a 1-0 win over Everton.
Before the 2022 summer transfer window closed on September 1, 2022, Todd Boehly had spent £273.5 million on signing players which was the highest amount spent by any European club in the window. No Premier League club has ever spent so much in a single window.
The players Chelsea recruited for Thomas Tuchel this season are Raheem Sterling (£47 5m), Cesare Casadei (£16m), Gabriel Slonina (£12m), Coulibaly (£34m), Carney Chukwuemeka (£20m), Cucurella (£62m), Fofana (£70m), and Aubameyang (£12m).
Interestingly, Chelsea spent a whopping £166 million in recruiting defenders alone in the last transfer window. Despite that, Chelsea have conceded at least a goal in their last six games including a 1-0 defeat at the hands of a lowly rated Dinamo Zagreb.
Before their defeat to Zagreb in their Champions League opener, Chelsea struggled to defeat West Ham 2-1 on September 3 in a controversial Premier League game that ought to end in a 2-2 draw if not for questionable VAR calls.
Before then, Southampton stunned Chelsea with a 2-1 defeat and Chelsea recorded a 2-1 win over Leicester City which was The Blue’s best performance this season.
On August 21, Leeds United stunned Chelsea with a 3-0 defeat after drawing 2-2 with Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge in a controversial manner.
Thomas Tuchel is gone but he gave us the most box-office moment of the season 🍿👀pic.twitter.com/l9Zq9UZhlu
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) September 7, 2022
Thomas Tuchel and Chelsea’s inconsistent performance has forced the club to the 6th spot on the league table with 10 points in 6 games, 5 points away from first placed Arsenal, and 6 points above 18th placed West Ham United.
Apart from losing and drawing games, Thomas Tuchel was not able to come up with a very coordinated formation and tactics for his star-studded team. Until Chelsea sacked the 49-year-old German tactician on September 7, Tuchel’s Chelsea played a sloppy kind of football with no fluidity in the attack and poor defensive coordination.
As it stands, Chelsea’s fans will have their fingers crossed as they await the announcement of a new coach before next weekend when the club will face Fulham in the Premier League. The game will take place at Craven Cottage on Saturday, September 10, 2022. The kick-off time is 12:30.
