KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS —- Graham Potter is favourite to become the next manager of Chelsea after the sacking of Thomas Tuchel.

The German replaced Frank Lampard as boss midway through the 2020-21 campaign and led Chelsea to Champions League glory, beating Manchester City in the final.

He followed that up with victory at the Club World Cup last season and was praised for his diplomacy while fielding difficult questions during the final days of Roman Abramovich’s ownership last season following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This summer, new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly heavily backed Tuchel in the transfer market by investing more than £270m in the squad, with Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all arriving at Stamford Bridge.

But there was no immediate impact and Tuchel leaves with the club sixth in the Premier League table having lost three of their seven matches in all competitions this season.

A club statement said: “Chelsea have today parted company with Thomas Tuchel.

“On behalf of everyone at Chelsea, the club would like to place on record their gratitude to Thomas and his staff for all their efforts during their time with the club. Thomas will rightly have a place in Chelsea’s history after winning the Champions League, the Super Cup and Club World Cup in his time here.

“As the new ownership group reaches 100 days since taking over the club, and as it continues its hard work to take the club forward, the new owners believe it is the right time to make this transition. Chelsea’s coaching staff will take charge of the team for training and the preparation of our upcoming matches as the club moves swiftly to appoint a new head coach.

“There will be no further comment until a new head coach appointment is made.”

Potter has a contract at Brighton until 2025 and it would cost Chelsea at least £10m to obtain his release.

Tuchel had impressed fans and media in his first year with his self-control even in difficult situations. But this season already the cracks had been showing.

He earned a red card for his final-whistle tangle with Tottenham manager Antonio Conte and on Tuesday night he collected a yellow card in the 1:0 Champions League defeat by Dinamo in Zagreb.

To be fair, Tuchel had been forced had to cope with an extraordinary series of events. It all began with the sanctions against the club because of the ownership of Roman Abramovich, then came the time-consuming need to work closely with new owner Boehly in the transfer window.

Then Tuchel has to engineer a significantly-altered squad of players under all the usual stress which weighs on managers expected to challenge for all the biggest prizes in European and English football.

Chelsea spent a record £272m in the summer. This was a record not only for the Blues but for any Premier League club. Some of the signings made sense. But the deadline-day capture of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hinted at panic building below the Chelsea surface.

He had to be substituted in Zagreb after 57 minutes and, at 33, is not a player for the future. Fans already fear a renewal of the disciplinary problems which led to his departure from Arsenal.

Tuchel laid bare his own failure to deal with the gathering crisis after the defeat in Zagreb. He had changed his formation three times during the game but the nearest Chelsea came was near the end of the second half when Reece James struck a post.

Afterwards he admitted: “Everything is missing. We are not where we need to be and where we can be. So this is on me. This is on us.

“I’m angry with myself and I’m angry with our performance. This is a huge under-performance from all of us. It’s not clinical enough, not aggressive enough, not determined enough and not enough individually or as a team.

“We had good training sessions. I thought the team were prepared. I didn’t see it coming. That’s why I’m angry with myself.”

Tuchel may not have known it but he had just handed Boehly justification for sacking him.

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