Following Chelsea’s dismissal of Frank Lampard this morning, former PSG manager Thomas Tuchel is set to replace the club legend in the managerial hot seat, according to reports.
It is hoped that the German coach – won the French quadruple with PSG last season – can rejuvenate a team five points outside of the top four, with an announcement to be made within the next 24 hours.
The decision to replace Lampard with Tuchel was a tricky decision for club owner Roman Abramovich, who had never previously commented on any managerial changes in club statements.
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At the club’s Cobham training facility, players were told not to train as Chelsea prepared an official statement.
Abramovich said in the statement: “This was a very difficult decision for the Club, not least because I have an excellent personal relationship with Frank and I have the utmost respect for him’.
“He is a man of great integrity and has the highest of work ethics. However, under current circumstances we believe it is best to change managers.
“On behalf of everyone at the Club, the Board and personally, I would like to thank Frank for his work as Head Coach and wish him every success in the future. He is an important icon of this great club and his status here remains undiminished. He will always be warmly welcomed back at Stamford Bridge.”
Lampard’s final game was Sunday’s 3-1 FA Cup fourth-round win against Luton, which followed last week’s defeat at Leicester City, as he won just once in his past five Premier League matches.
Read more: Chelsea to sack Frank Lampard
The Blues had spent £200 million on summer signings of Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Eduoard Mendy, Hakim Ziyech and Ben Chilwell, but Lampard will not be able to see out the course of the season with his new players.
An impressive 14-game unbeaten run across two months from early October sparked hope of a title challenge, but Lampard was always keen to bat away such talk.
His reported successor, Tuchel, replaced current Premier League winning manager, Jurgen Klopp at Mainz and more recently Borussia Dortmund.
Embed from Getty ImagesHaving joined PSG in replace of Unai Emery in May 2018, Tuchel took the French giants to the Champions League final, but lost out to Bayern Munich at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon.
