Todd Boehly says he sacked Thomas Tuchel as he didn’t share his ‘vision’ and vows to ‘break down walls’ within Chelsea
CHELSEA owner Todd Boehly sacked Thomas Tuchel because the German didn't share his "vision" for the club.
The American axed his Champions League-winning coach after last week's 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb.
Boehly, 48, replaced him with Graham Potter - handing the former Brighton coach a five-year contract at Stamford Bridge.
Explaining his decision while speaking at the SALT conference in New York, the Blues owner said: "When you take over any business, you have to make sure you are aligned with the people in the business, and Tuchel is obviously extremely talented and obviously someone who had great success with Chelsea.
"Our vision for the club was to find a manager who really wanted to collaborate with us, a coach who really wanted to collaborate.
"There are a lot of walls to break down at Chelsea. Before, the first team and academy didn't really share data, didn't share information about where the top players were coming from.
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"Our goal is to bring a team together; all of that needs to be a well-oiled machine.
"The reality of our decision was that we weren't sure that Thomas saw it the same way we saw it.
"No one is right or wrong, we just didn't have a shared vision for the future. It wasn't about Zagreb, it was about the shared vision for what we wanted Chelsea to look like.
"It wasn't a decision that was made because of a single win or loss. It was a decision that we thought was the right vision for the club."
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Potter, 47, promised to "build relationships" in his first interview with Chelsea's club media.
He is set to take charge of his new side for the first time this evening when the Blues host RB Salzburg in the Champions League.
While speaking in New York, Boehly used Mo Salah and Kevin De Bruyne as shining examples of Chelsea's amazing academy - despite both arriving at Stamford Bridge as senior players recruited from elsewhere.
He also claimed that the Premier League should introduce an All-Star game - similar to those seen in US sports.
Boehly claimed that such a measure would help to "evolve" the English game and fund the football pyramid.
