Chelsea sack manager Tuchel after poor start to season
Tuchel led Chelsea to Champions League glory in 2021 and the Club World Cup crown earlier this year.
Thomas Tuchel has been fired by Chelsea, only one month into the season and just days after the club concluded a Europe-high spending spree of nearly $300m in the transfer window.
The London club said in a statement on Wednesday it had “parted company” with the German, who led them to Champions League glory in 2021 and the Club World Cup crown earlier this year.
The decision by Chelsea’s new ownership, fronted by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly, came a day after the team surprisingly lost to Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 in its first group match of the Champions League.
Tuchel, who has been a frustrated and prickly figure after matches this season, said “everything is missing” when he summed up Chelsea’s performance against Dinamo and complained that his players “lacked hunger”.
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
Chelsea has lost two of its first six games – to Leeds and Southampton – in an underwhelming start to the Premier League that has seen the club’s new signings fail to gel.
The club sits sixth, five points behind leaders Arsenal.
“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 said in a statement on Wednesday.
Tuchel was in charge for a year and a half, winning the Champions League only six months into his tenure.
Chelsea faded in the second half of last season – Tuchel’s only full campaign at the helm – and was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Champions League before finishing third in the Premier League, 19 points behind champion Manchester City.
“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,” the club said.
“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.”