Thomas Tuchel decided to cancel the Chelsea squad’s scheduled day off on Sunday as he felt it necessary to clear the air with his players ahead of a pivotal week in their season.
Thomas Tuchel said: “I also had some plans on Sunday morning and they were cancelled, but this happens. It is a very normal process. If you want to be loved on a daily basis, you should not become a football coach at a high level. It will simply not happen. And whatever decisions you take – taking players out, leaving them out – if you have a reason my experience is to give the reason and then what can he do? He needs to accept it. He signed for Chelsea and this is the decision. If you do it randomly, without reason, and be super-unreliable, then it’s maybe harder to take. But we did it in an atmosphere still where everybody feels absolutely responsible. It’s not like I bring you [the players] in because you’re not good and I punish you now. This is not the atmosphere in which we did it. But listen, they accept it. I have the feeling they believe and trust in this kind of mentality that we did this together. I have my part in it. Everybody was here and the reaction to it was very nice because they then stayed, spoke with each other, and we used the Sunday morning to go over it. So we then had the Monday free for training and not the Monday for talking about the game, digesting, and then ending up with Tuesday only [to train]. It was nice. We just cleared the air and sometimes it’s necessary. That’s why we said, ‘Come on, let’s just do it on Sunday morning’. Then we have time to give ourselves the freedom to prepare for the [Leeds] match on Monday and Tuesday.”
Still, two trophies – the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup – have been won. And with the takeover of the club by a consortium led by the U.S. billionaire Todd Boehly close to completion, there is renewed hope going into the summer about Chelsea’s 2022/23 campaign. And 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. A big smile broke out across the face of the German who issued an instant response before then going into more details.
Thomas Tuchel said: “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.”
