Graham Potter didn’t even last his partial first season. After a hapless 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa, the Chelsea FC manager has been summarily sacked. Chelsea’s new American owners had only hired him from Brighton last September after sacking Thomas Tuchel — now the newly-ensconced manager at Bayern Munich.
And, per Fabrizio Romano, that’s just where the turning tables might rotate to next. Bayern are fresh off the shock sacking of Julian Nagelsmann over the March international break. The young German coach had previously been touted to lead a new era in Bavaria; Romano reports that he’s “considered a talented coach” and already a topic for Chelsea’s owners.
From the flurry of recent reports, we can surmise that Nagelsmann is likeliest to take a break for the rest of the season as he ponders how it all went wrong at Bayern. But the options are clarifying for him, and quickly. Antonio Conte is out at Tottenham, and now the Chelsea job is open. Carlo Ancelotti may not be long for Real Madrid.
Which squad will offer the best landing spot and the best chances for European competition will soon become clear.
It’s worth mentioning that Chelsea, at present, are eleventh in the Premier League table, well beyond even the European Conference League spots. They still have a long shot of a route back, though: they could win this year’s Champions League and qualify for next year’s. They’d have to first go through Real Madrid in the quarter-finals, and next: the winner of Manchester City and Bayern Munich in the semis.
On the other hand, Chelsea do have a large array of talent, much of it freshly arrived, and an enviable youth setup. They’ve got a talented half-space German technician in Kai Havertz. They’ve even been linked, in the past, to Bayern center-back Benjamin Pavard, who just might slot easily into a back three there. It’s not hard to imagine Nagelsmann thriving there, and quickly.
Could Chelsea owner Todd Boehly complete the swap? Tuchel to Bayern, Nagelsmann to Chelsea? Could it even happen sooner than we expect — with a Bayern and Chelsea UCL semi-finals meeting on the cards?
As storylines go, it couldn’t get closer to a dramatic fairy tale than that. And after the ups and downs of this roller-coaster of a season — with two record-breaking manager signings in Potter and Nagelsmann getting the boot in quick succession — nothing should be beyond the imagination.