Although it hasn’t been made official as yet, it appears to be a foregone conclusion that Thomas Tuchel will become Chelsea’s new manager, replacing Frank Lampard after what has been a disappointing few weeks for the Blues’ former midfielder.
Tuchel was sacked by Paris Saint-Germain on Christmas Eve, it’s believed for not toeing the party line.
That’s the first thing that will arguably get backs up in the corridors of power at Stamford Bridge, because Tuchel is not a yes man. Far from it in fact.
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If he gets the likes of Kai Havertz and Timo Werner firing, the Blues hierarchy may overlook his naturally combative demeanour.
However, seeing how the first few weeks pan out could be an eye-opener.
A potential 18-month contract with the option for another year seems to be the offer from Chelsea, though Gary Neville believes Tuchel will be lucky to see out his contract.
“Tuchel will be exposed to the exact same rules as Frank and we’ll be saying the same about him in 18 months, two years,” he said on Sky Sports News, cited by the Daily Mail.
“[…] Frank has had a short amount of time with a new set of players. The minute they spent the money they did, it was always going to bring more expectation and we know what happens at Chelsea when expectation comes.”
It could certainly be a case of out of the frying pan into the fire, albeit Tuchel will be well aware of the perils of working under Roman Abramovich, so shouldn’t be at all surprised at the old heave-ho should it happen.