It’s a year since Thomas Tuchel’s appointment at Chelsea, so we’re getting a slew of pieces about his time at the club so far, looking back on a whirlwind year.
The BBC have a really interesting piece which quotes Mainz chief executive Christian Heidel, who has worked with Tuchel and is still friends with him.
He gave a great analysis of Tuchel and how Chelsea can get the best out of him and his unique personality. Having also worked with Jurgen Klopp, Heidel is uniquely able to compare the two:
“Without saying one is better than the other, Thomas does not let people come as close as easily as Jurgen would do. It is important for Thomas to have somebody who supports him to the outside media – and supports the way he wants to play football.
“So he needs to feel the trust, but he doesn’t need to feel people constantly interfering in his business. If you trust in the way that he works and the way he wants to play football, he’s unstoppable. He will get the club all the success he needs as long as people keep all the other stuff off his back.”
So far we’ve not had any doubts about the board at Chelsea supporting the manager. Things may change in the future, but winning the Champions League makes it easy for the club to back you, and since then they’ve all seemed on the same page.
The most troubling moment of his reign so far – the Romelu Lukaku interview and the fallout amid a run of bad form – seemed to be dealt with as tidily as could be hoped, and the upstairs figures at the club seemed to be happy with Tuchel’s way of dealing with it.
If they can now back him in the transfer market, we might end up being as unstoppable as Heidel says.
