Chelsea boss Graham Potter has explained why Thomas Tuchel is responsible for Chelsea’s poor season.
According to Potter, some Chelsea players revealed to him that they had ‘the worst pre-season’ under Thomas Tuchel last summer.
“It’s really tough, I think my quote is it is the toughest job in football, that was a few weeks ago,” Potter said.
“There are lots of factors for that. Again, if you just take the season, a sub-optimal pre-season, speaking to a couple of the experienced guys thought it was the worse pre-season they’ve had for different reasons, that’s not to blame anybody, for different reasons that happened.”
Asked what the reasons were, Potter replied: “I don’t think I want to speak about that.
“I think it was more just organisationally it was, for different reasons, didn’t quite work as well as they’d like. I wasn’t there so I can’t say. But that’s the thing.
“Then there’s a manager change, old players that have left, new players come in, manager change, I turn up, in the middle of a Champions League [schedule] Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday, we have pretty much the most unprecedented injury situation in that period in the Premier League, I think we played Newcastle before the break, we had no Kepa, no Reece James, no Chilwell, no Cucurella, no Fofana, no Kante, no Sterling, no Loftus-Cheek after two minutes and no Azpilicueta, we lost 1-0, but that was where we’re at, then the World Cup.
“Then the club invests a lot of money in the squad, which does that [raises] to the pressure, does that to the expectation, does that to the noise.
“But the players we’ve got are not 28-year-old, 400-game Premier League players, they’re young players that you need to take time to adapt to.
“At the same time the injury situation that we had we have to try to adapt to get them up to speed to play in the Premier League, that’s the position we’ve been in.
“We thought we were making progress, then we had a first half against Southampton, third game in a week, returning from a Champions League game, that was below par, then the sky can fall in.
“That’s essentially how I could also say some of the facts, inconvenient facts if you just say, ‘he’s no use’, but that’s the situation.”
Todd Boehly set for major Chelsea clearout as eleven players ready for summer transfer exit
Todd Boehly is set for a huge Chelsea transfer exodus this summer (Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images)
Chelsea are set for a mass exodus from the squad this summer as the Blues look to clear out some of the players from the previous regime. Co-owner Todd Boehly has invested heavily into the playing squad during the two transfer windows he has had since taking control of the club almost one-year ago.
Over half a billion pounds has been spent in adding a whole number of signings to the side, though that is yet to show on the football pitch. New manager Graham Potter has struggled to bring the desired results so far in his tenure, being backed to work with a large number of players.
“I’m not complaining about it. It’s exciting but a test for me and the staff,” Potter said ahead of his side’s clash against Fulham last month. “We have a lot of good players and we have to create an environment where there is healthy competition. Only eleven can play, that is how it is, but it’s about being ready and supporting the team. There’s going to be frustration at times because only 11 can play.”
While there will be hopes of plenty of squad depth, some of those that aren’t featuring in the matchday squad may have to be cut out as a squad clearout is planned. According to the Athletic, a whole number of players could be set to leave the club on a transfer switch this summer.
The report states that those who have one-year remaining on their contract could be free to leave – bar Thiago Silva, who has just agreed an extension for a further year. In that category are Cesar Azpilicueta, Mason Mount, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mateo Kovacic, Christian Pulisic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
Added to those six are the potential for another five exits, with a whole host of players set to be out of contract. Marcus Bettinelli, Ethan Ampadu, Nathan Baxter and Tiemoue Bakayoko are four of those that could be set to leave as there’s no news on extending their stay, while N’Golo Kante is another that could leave on a free transfer, though talks are underway over a new contract.
It remains to be seen exactly how many others could follow those out of the door at Stamford Bridge this summer, however it’s clear that further changes are required.
