Firing a coach, in one way or another, always means the implicit recognition of a failure. In the recent case of Chelsea, this confirmed a blatant lack of trust in such a manager Thomas Tuchel with credit and a place in the history of the ‘blue’ as the champion of the 2021 Champions League. However, in recent times, sacking the coach at the start of the season has usually meant victory on the Old Continent for the Stamford Bridge club. And that’s right, of the last four times Chelsea have ‘implemented’ their coach at the start of the course, three have been resolved with a European title: the two champions raised by the ‘blues’ -2012 and 2021-, and the 2013 Europa League.
In the last decade, only during 2015/2016, when Guus Hiddink was hired in December in his second spell at Chelsea after the club finished third of Jose Mourinho, The Stamford Bridge entity finished without an appearance in Europe, and even less so after crashing out in the round of 16 against PSG.
Chelsea
European titles with a change of coach
1998 – Recopa – Gianluca Vialli by Ruud Gullit
2012 -Champions- Matteo said by Villas-Boas
2013 – Europa League – Rafael Benitez by Di Matteo
2021 -Champions- Thomas Tuchel said Lampard
The most recent precedent was signed by a Tuchel who has now undergone the boomerang effect repeated in the life of coaches, now the German is guilty but then savior. Frank Lampard the club ran out of patience in January 2021 with the team wandering in ninth position in the Premier after falling to Leicester (2-0) and committed himself to the former Borussia Dortmund and PSG team.
Thomas Tuchel oversaw a spectacular defensive perfection in a lackluster team that managed to beat the team of offensive perfection, Guardiola’s City, in the Champions League final (0-1, goal scored by Havertz). A remarkable consistency recognized by a single goal conceded in six games since the round of 16 against Atlético, Porto and Real Madrid.
The title had a lot of poetic justice for Tuchel, expelled by PSG a few months ago for losing the final of ‘Orejona’ against Bayern and this is a record, because it is the first time and so far the only time already a coach has been planted in two finals in a row of the maximum continental competition with two different teams. The Krumbach coach added the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup the following year, which was conditioned in the decisive phase of the season by the institutional instability generated by the invasion of Ukraine.
But the way in which Chelsea lifted the long-awaited Champions League by changing the coach is remembered as much or more than the second. In the summer of 2011 it was no longer Carlo Ancelotti after a season without titles and the ‘blue’ club trusted the very young André Villas-Boas33, the London entity was captured by the Portuguese triplet League-Cup-Europa League with Porto in a bet with nostalgic overtones, as Mourinho had already signed that milestone with the dragons in 2003 to lift the Champions League in 2004. The distinction sought, this time taken by Villas-Boas the ‘blues’ in the continental title .
The final destination, in fact, is that, but on a different path. 20 points behind the lead in the Premier and very touch in the Champions League after 3-1 in the first leg in Naples, Villas-Boas -currently without a team after going through Marseille-, was fired during the season, in March. And it was the most unexpected that led Chelsea to the expected destination with a nod to the past. The choice was the second of Villas-Boas, the Italian Robert Di Matteoa ‘blue’ symbol who won the London team’s last European title as a player -the 1998 Cup Winners’ Cup-, but was almost unknown on the bench.
Initially interim, he stayed until the end and gave Chelsea an emergency plan according to the limited time to introduce great new things to the game and the need for titlesa ‘catenaccio’ ancestry that reached its highest expression at the Camp Nou in the memorable semifinals against Barça, preceded by Fernando Torres’ goal. What was also unexpected, and in the same conservative way, happened in the final against Bayern and Di Matteo’s cruel Chelsea spoiled the party for the Bavarians in their own home with a goal from Didier Drogba who equalized in the last minute with a final resolved on penalties with a last shot also from the Ivorian striker.
A supportive but not solidly conservative champion caught in the tweezers compared to Tuchel in particular, a champion albeit a bit odd for bombing Barça in the second leg of the semifinals. But champion at the end of the day. The passing man remained in the history of Chelsea and raised a generation of those John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, etc.
The 07/08 course ended without any title, but also a low profile coach like Israeli Avram Grant -replacing Mourinho, who resigned in September-, made the ‘blues’ reach their first Champions League final, a bad memory for the ‘blues’ after slipping out of the penalty shootout in John Terry. Thus, the three European Cup finals that Chelsea played in took place in seasons with a change of coach.
Tell Matteo, which would also add the FA Cup at the end of that 11/12 campaign, he renewed but a few months later he would be sacked in November on the brink of Champions League group stage elimination and with an empty bag of titles after losing. the Community Shield in the City and be subdued by Athletic in the European Super Cup (1-4). The transalpine made a name for itself but would fail Schalke-04 -season 14/15 and Aston Villa -course 15/16-. Chelsea will make another successful management change at the end of 2012 and Rafael Benitez He will make the ‘blues’ try for a new European title in the Europa League.
The prestigious coach from Madrid did not recover his speed on the last day of the group stage of the Champions League -eliminated despite 6-1 against Nordsjalleand-, but he recovered Fernando Torresfaced the Danes and 6 goals in 9 games in the second continental competition, including the final against benfica (1-2), decided in extra time with Ivanovic’s goal to extend the fighting curse of Bela Guttman.
The Recopa of 1998, with a change in the bench as well
Despite this recent success streak, those ‘advantages’ of killing managers at the start of the season, even before the season Abramovich, which started in 2003. Di Matteo brought the lesson learned because the Recopa he won as a ‘blue’ player in 1998 has already had a change of coach in between, because Ruud Gullit was dismissed in February 1998 by Gianluca Vialli anything, Italian too.
Apart from that Recopa won with a goal from Zola in the final against Stuttgart (1-0), Chelsea will also lift the League Cup with Vialli. 14 years later, Di Matteo would take his countryman: a continental and a local title. So without counting the two European Super Cups -played at the beginning of the season-, the ‘blue’ team won until four of their six continental titles with mid-season coaching changes. Only in Recopa of 1971 with Dave Sexton as coach and the 2019 Europa League with Maurizio Sarri‘used’ the only coach Chelsea, the champion through improvisation on the bench.
Source: La Verdad
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