Chelsea’s new owners must back Thomas Tuchel or face reverting to the ways of the old regime at Stamford Bridge in regards to the managerial situation at the club.
Under Roman Abramovich’s stewardship, Chelsea saw 14 managers come into Stamford Bridge, with Tuchel being the last.
While Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital wish to back the German, at least in this transfer window, as they handed him control of incomings and outgoings, they simply must do more if Tuchel is to have long-term success in London.
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Speaking after Chelsea’s 4-0 loss to Arsenal in pre-season, Tuchel has laid out his demands on the table - stating that he simply needs more players in order to compete next season.
“We had an urgent appeal for quality players and a huge amount of quality players,” he said. “If you want to play three at the back you need to have three in the back. If you don’t, it’s not worth playing three in the back.”
"I saw today a team in Arsenal who are mentally committed to an idea of playing, a level of exhaustion, a level of physical commitment that we could not match.
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"Also, a level of mental commitment that we lacked because we have a lot of players who are thinking about leaving and looking at their options.
“We have players that have left and I think at the moment that's obvious."
The German continued to reveal that he believes his team are ‘far’ behind Man City and Liverpool.
"Given our last two weeks, our game today, we should not mention the two teams in front of us. We got absolutely beaten by a team that does not play Champions League football next season and finished behind us. But at the moment, they seem far ahead of us,” he continued.
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It is clear that the head coach is frustrated by Chelsea’s lack of activity in recent weeks, only being able to bring two players through the door as the Blues are in desperate need of defensive reinforcements to allow the German to implement his system.
We have seen previous Chelsea managers such as Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Maurizio Sarri and Frank Lampard all comment negatively about the mentality of their squad's, and all of their spells at Stamford Bridge ended in departures.
It is now time for the Blues to back the manager over the players and allow him to rebuild his squad this summer.
Chelsea have been heavily linked with a move for Sevilla defender Jules Kounde but it now appears that Barcelona could hijack the deal for the 23-year-old.
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So far, Chelsea have added Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly to the Blues squad which saw Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Romelu Lukaku depart.
Tuchel’s squad has arguably been downgraded, losing three players and only bringing in two replacements, with a depleted defence.
We have seen this in the past under the Abramovich era, with Chelsea failing to build squads under their previous head coaches and their fates all ending in a similar fashion.
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Boehly and Clearlake Capital must ensure that this does not happen again under Tuchel, who has proven that he has what it takes to coach a trophy winning side at Stamford Bridge.
Reaching both domestic cup finals last season, as well as lifting the Champions League the season before, it is now time to back Tuchel and bring in who he wants to help improve the squad.
With the Premier League season starting in less than two weeks, and Chelsea already seeing a deal for Raphinha hijacked this summer, they must put up the cash to bring in the players that Tuchel so desires this summer.
Both Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp were granted the freedom to rebuild their squads when arriving at Manchester City and Liverpool, and now it is Tuchel’s turn.
The likes of Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta have been linked with moves away and with Chelsea holding out for higher fees, the German may be stuck with these players for another season.
With their Premier League rivals all adding to their squads this transfer window, now is the time to give Tuchel the resources he needs, or his fate could end as we have seen so many other’s end at Stamford Bridge.
Topics: Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel, Todd Boehly, Football
Nick Emms