Thomas Tuchel has been named the next Chelsea manager. Having been recently sacked by Paris Saint-Germain just a month ago, he was a huge shadow looming over Chelsea as Frank Lampard’s woes increased. When Lampard was finally given his marching orders, Tuchel was there to swoop in after a month’s long vacation. But how did the German get to be the Chelsea boss?
It is hard to separate Tuchel’s story from Jurgen Klopp’s. Klopp began his managerial career at Mainz where he had been a successful player. When Klopp departed Mainz for Dortmund, the German side turned to the young Augsburg II manager Tuchel to take charge. And when Dortmund and Klopp split, the same decision was made by a different club. Tuchel had followed Klopp twice.
His Dortmund side largely returned to their form prior to Klopp’s last season (where it all went off the rails a bit). They likely would have been more successful had it not been for one Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich at the same time. But even when Guardiola departed the German giants, Dortmund was unable to topple them. That being said, there were strong reports of Guardiola telling the Bayern Munich board to pick Tuchel as his successor.
That isn’t what happened, however. Bayern Munich went with the safer option of Carlo Ancelotti and Tuchel remained at Dortmund. The following season was marred by disputes over player sales. But Tuchel was driven out by something more sinister than that, at least according to Tuchel.
Prior to a Champions League fixture in 2017, the Dortmund team bus, full of players including Christian Pulisic, was attacked by a terrorist. At the trial, Tuchel spoke about the rift this created between him and the board. Dortmund was made to play that Champions League shortly thereafter despite Tuchel’s protests. There were other arguments that built into Tuchel’s departure, but the lack of support he felt was the tipping point.
Tuchel proceeded to take over at Paris Saint-Germain who had the same goal as ever: win the Champions League. PSG has very much gotten to the point that Chelsea was at in the late 2000s where they had won everything else, could keep winning everything else, but they lacked the big eared trophy. Tuchel was unable to do so in his first season, but PSG was more patient that Chelsea was in the same circumstance.
The second season was marred by Covid, but Tuchel did take PSG further than they had ever been in the Champions League. They fell in the final to a treble winning Bayern Munich side but Tuchel earned plaudits for getting that far. Unfortunately for him, he once again got into battles with the board over signings. PSG started the season poorly (by their metrics). It might have been fine had Tuchel not had an interview where he referred to himself as more “sports minister” than coach. Shortly thereafter, he was fired and replaced by Mauricio Pochettino. Ironically, many reports say Chelsea would have gone after Pochettino had he still been available.
Despite being fired after fights with his last two boards and Chelsea being “warned off” him years ago, Chelsea has opted to believe that they of all clubs can change him. That is always a dangerous tight rope to walk and one the Blues fell off with Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, and Maurizio Sarri. Managers are their habits and it’s very hard to be the one club that changes them.
That being said, Tuchel does tick the boxes of the pathway Chelsea allegedly wants to move towards. It is possession play, but one built on the back of a hardworking counter press. Tuchel does have a record of using youth players, though it won’t be as prevalent as with Lampard (but it wouldn’t be for any manager). It is hard to deny that Klopp and Guardiola clubs both look at him highly.
But it will be a difficult task to get past the history of board infighting. There is only ever one winner with that and it is never the manager. If Tuchel is to succeed at Chelsea, the results will have to be there or he will have to show he has changed his ways after his last two sackings.