Robbie Walls
New Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has revealed that he isn’t concerned by the relatively short contract he has been given and is instead focusing on achieving silverware with the Blues.
The 47-year-old arrived at the club this week following the sacking of club legend Frank Lampard, with the former England international having lasted just over a year and a half at the club.
Tuchel previously spent time in charge of Bundesliga sides Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, as well as his most recent job at Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain, where he guided the French side to the Champions League final last season, before being sacked back in December.
The German is now tasked with getting the best out of the likes of Kai Havertz and Timo Werner, although he’s only initially been handed an 18-month contract at Chelsea, something which he isn’t overly concerned about.
Speaking in an interview with the Sunday Newspapers, Tuchel said: “After a minute, I thought: ‘What does it change? What does it change if they give me four and a half years and they sack me anyway?’ If they are not happy with me, they will sack me anyway.”
Back on the grind 👊 pic.twitter.com/IFH2dp4ewb
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 30, 2021
While he’s only just arrived, Tuchel appears fully aware that he must quickly get Chelsea challenging for silverware once more.
“We can just admit it — on this level nobody steps into any competition to be second,” he said. “Nobody. It is easier for me to talk about it and set these things out clearly than to talk around it and [you’re] not sure what everybody expects of you. There were even managers [at Chelsea] who won titles and got sacked. One is sitting right now in front of you. It happened to me around Christmas [at Paris St-Germain].”
“It’s like this in the end: what everyone is looking for is a nice guy, a hard guy, a trophy-winning guy, a good-looking guy, a funny guy. That does not exist. At some point I hope I am the guy who can have the [right] characteristics for an era and for a certain period in this club.”
Tuchel was quoted as saying he felt more like “a sports politician or sports minister than a coach” during his first season at PSG, though has since claimed those comments were a mistranslation, and he laughed at the suggestion he would be a ‘politician’ at Stamford Bridge.
“I have absolutely the feeling, 100 per cent, that they signed me as a football coach,” he said. “This is my feeling over the last three days and this is one of the best feelings I’ve ever had since doing this job at this level.”
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