Chelsea changed coaches twice this season

1 year ago

Not even Roman Abramovich did, but Todd Boehly did. After "killing" Thomas Tuchel at the beginning of the season, Chelsea now send Graham Potter out of the club after the team drifted down the bottom half of the table. This is the first time Chelsea has fired up to two coaches in just one season, and they will have a third soon to take over to prepare for the Champions League campaign (meet Real Madrid in the quarterfinals).

When it comes to the Champions League, Chelsea have won the competition twice and both times sacked the manager mid-season and the replacement won the title. Someone has thought about the possibility of Potter doing the same, but with Potter now also gone, can we see Chelsea crowned Europe despite having 3 managers in a season?

Chelsea is not the first team to win the Champions League after changing champions mid-season. It was Real Madrid who did it in 1958/59, they started the season with Luis Carniglia on the bench until February 1959, but Carniglia was not sacked. He temporarily left Real due to kidney disease requiring treatment, so the president of Santiago Bernabeu appointed Miguel Munoz to lead instead, and in April Carniglia returned to complete the season and bring Real to the fourth consecutive Champions League title. next.

Right next season, Real changed the general in the middle, but this time Manuel Fleitas was fired in April 1960 (just 1 month before the final) because Fleitas at that time could not bring back the La Liga championship. Liga. Munoz returned to lead and led Real through the semi-finals and then won the Champions League final.

Bayern Munich is the next team to change champions midway to win the Champions League. Udo Lattek led Bayern to the first championship in the 1973/74 season, but the following season Bayern started badly in the Bundesliga, causing him to be sacked. Coach Dettmar Cramer was brought up on the recommendation of captain Franz Beckenbauer and helped Bayern go to two consecutive championships in the C1 Cup.

Aston Villa is the first English team to win the C1 Cup after changing champions midway. Ron Saunders built a very strong team at Villa Park for 8 years and won the English championship in the 1980/81 season, but in the 1981/82 season Villa lost their form and at the time of February 1982 they were standing in the middle. Chart. Saunders quarreled with management over contracts and was fired, stuntman Tony Barton led Aston Villa to a shock victory over Bayern Munich to win the Champions League.

It was also the last before the Champions League moved to the current Champions League format, and we have two examples of Roberto Di Matteo and Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea. Both Real Madrid and Bayern repeated the same thing, Zinedine Zidane replaced Rafa Benitez between the 2015/16 season with Real and the 2019/20 season Hansi Flick replaced Niko Kovac midway through the season at Bayern.

Thus, in the history of the C1 Cup, Real Madrid in the 1958/59 season won the championship despite going through 3 different "terms" of the coach. In fact, Luis Carniglia only took a two-month medical break and then returned, but Real Madrid considers these three different coaching terms, not using the word interim with Munoz's period because when the Bernabeu appointed Munoz, the Real side did not know Carniglia. cured or not.

Anyway, Carniglia and Munoz are still 2 coaches, not 3 different coaches in a season. So if Chelsea win the Champions League with another coach to replace Potter, it will be the first time and promises to be an unprecedented milestone.