Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea trials and turbulence force Todd Boehly to act

“Thomas is a difficult person, but a fantastic coach,” said Borussia Dortmund’s chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke in November 2020. “We broke up because it just didn’t fit.” More than five years have passed since Thomas Tuchel’s reign at Dortmund came to an unceremonious end and now the manager who supported Tottenham Hotspur when he was a child because he liked the name finds himself out of work again.

Chelsea’s lacklustre displays this season despite spending a record £278m in the summer transfer window had left supporters questioning whether this might be the beginning of the end for the 49-year-old only 17 months on from their Champions League triumph at Porto’s Estádio do Dragão. But not many would have predicted the end arriving so swiftly.

One hundred days into the Todd Boehly era, and having witnessed first-hand Tuchel’s disjointed tactics as his side were beaten by Dinamo Zagreb in their opening match of this season’s competition, the American co-owner chose to act. It was the kind of ruthless decision more reminiscent of the previous regime under Roman Abramovich, although in hindsight there were plenty of signs that it would end this way.

Three changes of formation in the space of 45 minutes against Dinamo, after Chelsea found themselves trailing to Mislav Orsic’s excellent breakaway goal, were enough to leave any player confused. Tuchel had to rub his eyes in disbelief after the ease with which Orsic and Bruno Petkovic ripped through his defence. “We conceded a goal with two players in a counterattack – it never happened before,” said the manager. “I don’t understand why it happened today. It’s clearly my job to analyse it so this is my analysing from the sideline and it will continue.”

Boehly, having