Spend lavishly in the transfer window and fire your coach abruptly if the results do not follow... The new American owners of Chelsea seem to have quickly assimilated the recipes for the success of the Blues for more than 20 years.

This time, it was Thomas Tuchel who paid the price after some 300 million euros spent this summer and only 7 matches in the season.

"As the new management celebrates 100 days at the helm of the club, and continues to work hard to move it forward, the new owners believe the time is right to make this change," the board wrote in its statement. communicate the name of a successor.

The "opportunity" will therefore have been this defeat against Dinamo Zagreb (0-1), on the first day of the Champions League, after another tasteless performance which had left the technician himself cautious.

"It's a huge underperformance from all of us. We're not precise enough, we're not clinical enough, we're not aggressive enough on the ball, we don't put enough determination , it's not enough on an individual level, it's not enough collectively", he had listed.

"Not seen coming"

"I thought the last game (a 2-1 win against West Ham, after being behind) was going to help us (...). We had a good result, we had a bit of success when we maybe a bit of a need for success. We had had some good training sessions. I thought the team was prepared and knew what had to be done. I didn't see it coming and that's That's why I'm angry with myself," he said.

In the league, Chelsea occupies a flattering 6th place in view of its performances, with 10 points out of 18 possible.

But the decline in the results of the Blues does not date from this summer.

Chelsea, which had snatched a place in the Champions League and won the C1 in 2021 after half a season with the German at its head, thanks to an iron defense and great offensive realism, had been missing since at least the spring. 2022.

The end of the last exercise had already been studded with heartbreaking performances and huge individual errors, especially in the semi-final first leg of C1 against Real Madrid, (1-3).

The very turbulent context behind the scenes, with the forced sale of the club, due to the sanctions affecting the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, had undoubtedly ended up catching up with the first team.

Boehly's big cleaning

The Londoners had, despite everything, secured 3rd place behind the monsters Manchester City and Liverpool, and played in two FA Cup and League finals, lost on penalties only, against the Reds.

The effective change of ownership, at the end of June, was quickly followed by a big wash, the president Peter Buck, the general manager Marina Granovskaia, and the former Czech international goalkeeper Petr Cech, director of the performance of the club, having packed their bags.

The wording of the press release also almost suggests that this separation was, if not premeditated, largely anticipated in the fairly near future.

American businessman Todd Boehly, one of the club's co-owners, had set himself up as sporting director for the duration of the summer transfer window and many people were joking on social media that he was going maybe call himself a coach as well.

And if the sums invested were substantial, the Chelsea transfer window had been marked by several failures in recruitment, sometimes inconsistent leads and finally panic buying at prices well above the market, such as 80 million euros. for the Frenchman Wesley Fofana.

With a trip to Fulham this Saturday and an already crucial match against Salzburg next Wednesday in C1, Chelsea is already in a hurry.

© 2022 AFP