Ruthlessness returns at Chelsea

Chelsea were supposed to have changed.   Now Thomas Tuchel will get a reported £13m payout after his sacking.   Football finance guru Kieran Maguire asked: ‘In what other industry would you give an asset manager £250 million to invest and an overall portfolio of £1bn and then sack him a few weeks later once he has invested it?’

The ruthlessness that typified the Roman Abramovich regime, when a stodgy stretch of results would render even the most decorated of head coaches a dead man walking, was meant to be a thing of the past. The club had moved on under new ownership and, the bold suggestion went, would be doing things differently now.

Instead, just over three months after the completion of a horribly complicated takeover forced through in unique and distinctly fraught political conditions, we find ourselves here again.  The club’s new owners have reacted to a perceived drop in standards, just as their predecessor always did.

Boehly and his fellow co-controlling owners knew they were learning their roles on the hoof. They wanted to lean on the head coach’s knowledge and experience and did not envisage maintaining the (financially) costly hire-and-fire culture for which Chelsea had become renowned back when compensation payouts stacked up higher than silverware.

Now the club find themselves in the situation of feeling compelled to make a change in the dugout while some of the players Tuchel had championed as signings, personnel conditioned with his tactical approach in mind amid a £250million summer spend, are still bedding into their new surroundings.

As far as his successor is concerned, Kieran Maguire commented: ‘Some comparable numbers that Graham Potter may be mulling over when making a big decision. Chelsea generated over £430m in 2020/21, despite Covid, nearly three times as much as Brighton.  Chelsea's squad cost over £1 billion, about six times that of Brighton.