There is one big obstacle in the way of Julian Nagelsmann’s Chelsea goal, writes Janne Palomäki.
Graham Potter was sacked after 31 Chelsea appearances. PDO
Chelsea management’s decision to sack manager Graham Potter was not a surprise.
His scoring average at the helm of the Blues dropped to just 1.27 per game when the team lost to Aston Villa on Saturday.
Among Premier League managers who have managed Chelsea for more than 20 matches, the statistic is the worst in history together with Glenn Hoddle (1993–1996).
Football is a results sport, and there is no looking behind the numbers. Chelsea held the ball 69 percent and shot 27 times against Aston Villa.
The opponent had two shots on goal at Stamford Bridge. It won 2–0.
Chelsea’s new owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali finally had to admit that they didn’t their gamble has not worked. Back in Roman Abramovich’s time, Manager’s ball was extremely windy, and the Russian billionaire was considered an unnecessarily trigger-sensitive club boss.
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Watch a video of Graham Potter’s return to Brighton. Premier League football can be seen on VSport’s channels and Viaplay’s service.
When Boehly gave the boot to Thomas Tuchel in September, it was explained by the introduction of a new culture. He took Potter from Brighton to London for a historic price of 20 million euros and signed the man to Chelsea on a five-year contract.
The purpose was to guide the club to a sustainable foundation.
It lasted just over six months. Potter guided Chelsea to 31 matches, with 12 wins, eight draws and 11 losses. The goal ratio only barely remains at plus 33–31.
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Spain’s Bruno Saltor will lead Chelsea against Liverpool on Tuesday. PDO
Chelsea won championships under Abramovich. Even in September, Tuchel was football’s dominant club team world champion coach.
In the league, the gap to local rival Arsenal was then a tolerable five points.
Now the Gunners are already 34 points away, and the gap to the last Champions League ranking (12 points) cannot be closed during the remaining rounds.
Potter was not in charge of signings, but it was clear he was expected to use big-money signings Enzo Fernández and Myh’ailo Mudryk on the pitch.
He could still have succeeded in that, but how should he have done with Benoit Badiashile, Noni Madueke, or David Fofana? Chelsea bought new players for about 400 million euros in January alone.
Then talk about a sustainable foundation and long-term plans.
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Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has not enjoyed his time at Stamford Bridge. PDO
Although the firings themselves were no longer a surprise, their timing is at least peculiar. The Premier League was just on a long international break, during which the club management could have thought about managerial options in peace.
Instead, Potter remained on his mission throughout, only to be kicked out as soon as it was over.
Now the next move has to be made in a much tighter space. Chelsea will already face Liverpool on Tuesday evening under the leadership of temporary pilot Bruno Saltori.
And it’s only a week until the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.
Julian Nagelsmann is known to be Chelsea management’s favorite position. The agent of the 35-year-old German coach is a good friend of Boehly, and coincidentally, Nagelsmann would have just been relieved of his duties at Bayern Munich.
It was also what might have sped up Potter’s kicks. Nagelsmann has also been linked to the vacant Tottenham manager’s job. In addition, he himself may be at the top of the list of players who are likely to be released in the summer at Real Madrid or PSG.
However, there are a couple of small problems with Nagelsmann. The first of them is, of course, that he himself got fired just over a week ago.
Top coaches usually want to take a breath and weigh your own mistakes before moving on to a new task.
However, the much bigger problem is that Bayern Munich did not directly fire Nagelsmann. He was simply relieved of his duties.
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Julian Nagelsmann is considering the next move in his career. PDO
In other words, the coach still has a valid employment relationship, and Chelsea should negotiate his release with the Bavarian giants.
– I can’t really imagine that he would coach anywhere again this season, Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn confirmed on Sunday.
Bayern Munich must also think about how things look for themselves. Namely, if it beats Manchester City and Chelsea Real Madrid in the Champions League, the teams will meet in the semi-finals.
In terms of the arc of the drama, the alternative would be the most delicious. After all, it is Tuchel who Boehly fired from Chelsea in September as the head coach of Bayern Munich.
A semi-final against Nagelsmann would also potentially expose the mistakes of the Bayern management.