Tuchel and Chelsea did not have ‘shared vision’, says Boehly

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has explained the reasoning behind the decision to sack Thomas Tuchel, which stemmed from the lack of a “shared vision”.

The Blues caused a stir last week with the dismissal of their Champions League winning coach, which followed defeats to Dinamo Zagreb, Southampton and Leeds United.

Tuchel’s exit was particularly surprising given the plethora of transfer activity in the transfer window, which saw the likes of Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang brought to Stamford Bridge.

Just a week after the close of the window, however, Tuchel was gone and swiftly replaced by Graham Potter, who has impressed in his time with Brighton and Hove Albion.

While the decision to sack Tuchel just a month into the season may be considered to have been rash, Boehly has made it clear it was a decision with the long-term picture in mind.

“When you take over any business, you just have to make sure that you’re aligned with the people who are operating the business,” he told the SALT Conference.

“Tuchel is obviously extremely talented and someone who had great success at Chelsea.

“Our vision for the club was finding a manager who really wanted to collaborate with us, a coach who really wanted to collaborate.

“I think there are a lot of walls to break down at Chelsea. Before the first team, for example, in the academy they didn’t really share data. They didn’t share information about where the top players were coming from.

“So, our goal is to really bring the team together with the academy, with the first team, when we want to acquire and develop; all of that needs to be a well-oiled machine.

“The reality of our decision was that we just weren’t sure that Thomas saw it the same way we saw it, and no one’s right or wrong. We didn’t have a shared vision for the future.

“It wasn’t about Zagreb, it was really about a decision for what we wanted Chelsea Football Club to look like and it wasn’t a decision as a result of a single win or loss.

“It was a decision made about what we thought was the right vision for the club.”