Thomas Tuchel is delivering results and pulling crisis-mode Chelsea together, Man Utd should take note
It was the only time Thomas Tuchel was wrong-footed all day.
Chelsea’s impressive manager had spoken with his customary poise after his team strode into the last four of the FA Cup, switching effortlessly from setting out his tactical plan to nullify the threat of Middlesbrough’s galloping full-backs to the strain that Government sanctions have placed on cleaners, office staff and chefs at the club he has become an assured spokesperson for.
But one question had him stumped.
“Are we still in the title race?” he repeated, almost incredulously. “We are on a good run – but so are the other two (Liverpool and Manchester City). And they’ve both been on that run for three years….”
He had a point. But if the title has indeed gone for Chelsea, eleven points shy of City, albeit with a game in hand, Tuchel will surely end the season with his already garlanded reputation greatly enhanced.
Delivering results for an elite team is one thing, but pulling together a club in full cracked badge crisis mode is quite another. That Tuchel is ticking both boxes should make every big club on the planet with a vacancy or desire to improve take notice.
“They have impressed me, not surprised me,” Tuchel said of his players after they negotiated the hurdle of a fired-up Middlesbrough to ease their way into the semi-final of the FA Cup. The same could probably be said for Tuchel, one of three generational coaching talents currently operating in the rarefied air of the Premier League’s top three.
The worry for whoever emerges from the faintly farcical beauty parade that Chelsea’s takeover has become is that Tuchel might be tempted to walk away if the job no longer corresponds to the original remit that tempted him to West London.
Analysis: Chelsea cannot be reborn until Abramovich’s circle leaves too
By Daniel Storey, i‘s chief football writer
Bruce Buck is not just Chelsea’s chairman. He has been a key ally of Roman Abramovich since before his time at Stamford Bridge, advising him on a number of oil producer Sibneft’s acquisition deals before following him to Chelsea in 2003. Whenever the owner needed a little positive PR, Buck was usually happy to oblige. He was influential in establishing Abramovich’s perceived personality in English football that has now been scorched.
Eugene Tenenbaum is not just a Chelsea director. Tenenbaum is one of Abramovich’s closest and longest associates, formerly the head of corporate finance at Sibneft before it was sold to Gazprom in September 2005. Until last week, Tenenbaum was also listed as a director of Evraz, the steel manufacturing company that was deemed most significant in the sanctioning of Abramovich by the Government. Tenenbaum resigned from that position in the wake of those sanctions; his Evraz webpage now redirects to the company’s pared-down structure.
Marina Granovskaia is not just Chelsea’s transfer negotiation guru (and director). She has been with Abramovich for longer than anyone. Having graduated from Moscow State University in 1997, she almost immediately became Abramovich’s personal assistant at Sibneft. She has also worked at Millhouse Capital, the oligarch’s UK-registered investment vehicle that was set up in 2001. Granovskaia was named as the best club director in European football at the Golden Boy awards last November.
That process of releasing the club from the Abramovich era cannot be completed until his closest associates also leave their positions.
He denied links to Manchester United on Friday but then again, he would. The reality for the Blues is that new owners are on their way, most likely looking for some kind of return of investment at some point in the future. The days of Abramovich bankrolling the club are over, books will have to be balanced and changes in the boardroom often lead to fissures in the dugout too.
If the Red Devils had any sense – and that’s not a given based on what’s happened over the last nine years – they’d be making discreet overtures without delay. And for whichever consortium gets the keys to Stamford Bridge giving Tuchel what he needs to encourage him to commit is a day one job.
Exactly when that takeover process concludes is unclear. Tuchel hopes for clarity – even talking about returning after the international break with more knowledge – but the reality is the complexities of the takeover business mean it might be a few months before a deal is completed. By then Chelsea might have an FA Cup and Champions League in the trophy cabinet, which sums up how bizarre their situation is.
“I know about the timescale but I don’t know anything about the offers,” Tuchel said on Saturday night of the next step after Friday’s bid deadline. “I don’t know how many offers, how many serious offers or the details of it. I know the guidelines of the process and that’s enough for me. When it gets decisive, I will perhaps know more.”
At Middlesbrough, two killer blows punctured the threat offered by motivated hosts. The peerless Mason Mount ran the game, supplying Romelu Lukaku with the ammunition to fire the first.
Hakim Ziyech fizzed a second past Joe Lumley after Folarin Balogun had been caught off guard when Marcus Tavernier’s searching corner gave him Boro’s most presentable chance.
2-0 down, the Riverside turned up the volume in the second half, hailing their model owner Steve Gibson. A lifelong fan, he has created a sustainable, ambitious club with a conscience and deserves all the plaudits. All the gate receipts here went to help Ukranian war victims at Gibson’s insistence.
A penny for his thoughts at Abramovich’s demise. In 1997 these two teams met in the Cup final, the Boro owner having funded a lavish spending spree to elevate his club to the status of contenders. Then came Abramovich, turbo-charging the Premier League and leaving Gibson’s aspirational model behind.
This Cup run has reinvigorated his club. This was the second sell-out of the Cup adventure at the Riverside, having waited a long five years for the first one for the Spurs game.
Wilder spoke of his “pride” afterwards but it’s now a nine-game season and they will resume Championship duties in the thick of a play-off race that has concertinaed.
Boro boast a promising mix of youthful potential and promotion know-how, typified by Wilder calling 19-year-old tyro Josh Coburn and Sol Bamba, 37 years old, off the bench in the second half.
In truth, promotion might be a year too soon for a group Wilder was only able to get to grips with in November. A summer honing the squad might provide a better platform to build from and in these parts, they still recall the sheer pointlessness of a joyless Premier League campaign under Aitor Karanka.
The current iteration’s greatest asset is probably the manager himself, who is a perfect fit for a club that requires graft and craft from its sides. That they are warming to this team is in no small part down to the manager.
“There’s a huge connection between the players and the supporters,” he said. “It’s the first part of what we’re trying to do and I think you saw (on Saturday) that’s happened.”
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