Winners and losers from Tuchel's Chelsea sacking

Stuart Telford

• 7 Sept 2022 12:02 BST
• 5 min read

Thomas Tuchel has been sacked by Chelsea, the Blues losing three of their last five games despite spending a record €296 million in the summer transfer window.

Tuchel clearly loses out, the German tactician out of work just a year on from being crowned a European and world champion. But who else might his departure be positive or negative for?

Football Transfers takes a closer look…

LOSER: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has had the run-around of late. Signed on a free by Barcelona from Arsenal in February, he ended last season as the 13-goal top scorer at Camp Nou. They duly spent €50m on Robert Lewandowski.

With his path to the first team at Camp Nou now blocked, Aubameyang joined Chelsea for €12m on transfer deadline day, delighted to be reunited with Tuchel, under whom he scored 104 goals in 141 games at Borussia Dortmund between 2015 and 2017.

"I'm really happy to play for him again," the Gabon captain said on his return to London. Their reunion lasted 59 minutes of football.

WINNER: Todd Boehly

Todd Boehly will now have a Chelsea operation completely in his own image. The US billionaire replaced Roman Abramovich in ownership of the club in May, but Tuchel still represented the last vestige of the previous regime.

Boehly has instituted a "Vision 2030", an attempt to sign the stars of the future today. The arrivals of Carney Chukwuemeka for £20m/€23m from Aston Villa and Gabriel Slonina for €15m from Chicago Fire represent that.

But in Aubameyang and Kalidou Koulibaly, Tuchel had asked for two players the wrong side of 30 in the summer spending spree. Koulibaly cost a cool €38m from Napoli. Raheem Sterling is somehow still 27, but it is clear Tuchel's player recruitment concept and Boehly's differed.

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LOSER: Romelu Lukaku

A blockbuster summer arrival last year, Romelu Lukaku returned to Chelsea from Inter Milan for €113m with a recently won Sere A title in his back pocket. Once seen as the Blues' in-house solution to Didier Drogba's ageing, Lukaku couldn't wait to get going.

"I hope you guys understand my decision to move on to Chelsea," he said at the time. "It's the chance of lifetime for me and I think at this time of my career it is a chance that I always dreamed of."

Unfortunately for Lukaku, he simply didn't fit into Tuchel's preferred 3-4-2-1 formation and only scored eight Premier League goals before being shipped out back to Inter on loan. What might have been.

WINNER: Kai Havertz

Part of the reason Lakuku failed to get going last season was that Tuchel preferred Kai Havertz at the point of his attack, the young German getting 22 Premier League starts up there compared to Lukaku's 16.

But Havertz is a late convert to the No.9 position, and he also only managed eight goals in the league.

This is a player who earned his €82m move to Chelsea from Bayer Leverkusen in 2020 as one of the brightest attacking midfielders in world football, one who hit 17 and 12 league goals in his last two Bundesliga seasons.

The next manager may be Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino or somebody else. Havertz won't care, as long as he gets to play in his position.

LOSER: Billy Gilmour

Poor Billy Gilmour. Once seen as the most promising prospect in the Chelsea academy, he was never really given a chance in the first team by Tuchel.

"We expected more, he expected more so it was like, without pointing a finger, but it is difficult also for him and for us to not succeed," Tuchel told the Evening Standard recently. "To not play at Norwich, to be relegated and then suddenly be a central midfielder for Chelsea and competing for top four and for every title…"

Boehly wanted to keep Gilmour - another player in keeping with "Vision 2030" - Gilmour didn't want to go out on loan again, and he has now moved to Brighton for £9m/€10.4m.

Days later, Tuchel's gone, and the manager who signed him for the Seagulls, Potter, might now end up at Chelsea.