Thomas Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel

The fans of arguably the most impatient club, Chelsea were right away singing former manager Thomas Tuchel’s name at the away end of the Etihad Stadium, where their team was being thrashed 4-0 in the FA Cup third round. For the very first time their history, Chelsea are knocked out at the third round itself in the FA Cup. And just four months since his appointment, Graham Potter is already feeling the heat of the fans as he lost their support after a string of dismantling results.

Chelsea were scattered all over the Etihad pitch as City were toying with them to put them out of the competition with a comfortable 4-0 win. A brace from Riyad Mahrez, and strikes from Julian Alvarez and Phil Foden were enough for City to knock Chelsea out of a second cup competition, after they also sent them packing out of the Carabao Cup during the third round in November last year. As a result, its no surprise that Thomas Tuchel is being remembered by the fans of the club which sacked him four months ago.

Thomas Tuchel
After being sacked just four months ago, Thomas Tuchel’s name was being chanted by Chelsea fans. Credits: Twitter

Chelsea fans recalling Thomas Tuchel just four months after his sacking

Despite his unfortunate sacking in September last year, there’s no denying that Thomas Tuchel went down in the history of the Chelsea Football Club as one of their greatest managers. The German achieved so much in so less time, leading the Blues to Champions League triumph just four months into his appointment in January 2021. A UEFA Super Cup followed, and the trophy that had eluded Chelsea previously, the Club World Cup too was won.

Although they were being touted as the title challengers in his first full season as a result of the spending, where Tuchel was handed with the £97m striker Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea failed to capitalise and finished third in the Premier League. However, Tuchel still had steered them to the FA Cup and Carabao Cup finals, both lost against Liverpool.

The 22/23 season saw new owners come through the door, in Todd Boehly and consortium, who then spent a humongous amount of £240m to give Thomas Tuchel a massive seven new signings. However, a crashing start to the season, where they managed only three wins in their first seven games in all competitions, burned out the patience of the new owners who showed Tuchel the door.

In came Graham Potter, with no prior experience of coaching a ‘big club’ such as Chelsea, but had certainly overachieved with his former side Brighton. A bright start under Potter, where Chelsea went unbeaten in their first nine games under him, collecting seven wins while keeping a brilliant five clean-sheets, has now turned into a nightmare. The next nine games have seen Chelsea lose six of those and win just two.

No wonder Thomas Tuchel’s name was being chanted by the Chelsea fans in the away end of the Etihad. Likewise his predecessor, Potter too has been handed with three signing till now, however only Benoit Badiashile being one for the first-team. But there’s no doubt the new manager is going to be presented with a handsome budget and star signings. However, with Potter’s lengthy contract running until the summer of 2027, calls are already being made to sack him, as he received some stick on the social media as well. Here are some of the best reactions: