Chelsea have operated with a hiring and firing recruitment style with managers during the Roman Abramovich era, an era that is about to be over.
Could the new owners operate differently? Absolutely. But even still, manager Thomas Tuchel says he is not making any long-term plans at the club and says he is concentrating on two or three games at a time.
Sources: Chelsea eyeing Benoît Badiashile and Edmund Tapsoba for defender reinforcements.
He was asked about it this week in his pre-match press conference for the Leeds game tonight. The extra bit came out from the embargoed section last night, as reported by Football London.
It was put to Tuchel this afternoon, given all the off-field issues he’s had to contend with this season, whether his long-term plan for his Chelsea tenure was still on track.
Apparently Tuchel smiled and laughed when that question was put to him, and he replied: “You need to be careful with long-term plans at Chelsea. You can end up that it’s not your plan anymore. So a long-term plan is two or three matches – that’s how you maybe live a long-term plan. That’s more important than making it.
“It’s high-level sport. We are judged on a weekly basis. We depend on results, on the atmosphere we create, and that we live up to it. For this, you need your energy, your focus. You need to love where you are. I can just say for me: everything is here. That’s why I dig-in in situations like this and try to come out with my team, my staff, and my players. There’s no other way.
“It’s like in a football match sometimes that you have to suffer, suffer, suffer. We have the feeling we get punished for not a lot. Even with results – if you look at our match with Man United, we get punished with one brilliant pass from (Nemanja) Matic and the finish from (Cristiano) Ronaldo and you think: ‘what’s going on?’
“We get punished for one mistake at Everton and now again in the 96th minute [against Wolves]. It’s like…is it not enough to be already sanctioned? But you keep on going. The plan is to win games, to take care of the atmosphere, and the work ethic which we have. And then hopefully it lasts for a long time.”
I guess he has a point, in football at this high level, is anyone’s job ever really considered as ‘safe’?
