Nothing is certain in life except death, taxes and Chelsea Football Club sacking their manager.... no matter how many trophies or positive changes said manager might have won or brought to the club. The common mouse, an animal with a lifespan of about 3 years even has a longer lifespan than a Chelsea manager. Imagine that. Their latest victim is Thomas Tuchel, the man that won 3 trophies in 19 months at Chelsea including the highly coveted Champions League that had eluded the club for 9 years.

Despite Chelsea's notorious history of sacking managers, Tuchel's dismissal is particularly surprising because his tenure had started so well. He was unbeaten in his first 14 games and had led Chelsea to their second Champions League triumph against all odds in less than 6 months after his arrival. Tuchel also won the UEFA SuperCup and the World Club Cup. On top of those, he reached back to back FA Cup finals and a League Cup final, narrowly losing those to a single goal and penalty shoot-outs. All in less than 2 years. Tuchel's record after only 100 matches in charge of Chelsea stood at 60 wins, 24 draws, and 16 defeats with a win percentage of 60%, the 4th highest win-rate by a Chelsea manager in 100+ matches. A percentage only bettered by Jose Mourinho (67.03%), Antonio Conte (65.09%), and Carlo Ancelotti (61.09%). He also defeated Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Pep Guardiola, Diego Simeone, Carlo Ancelotti, Zinedine Zidane, Jurgen Klopp and Max Allegri while at Chelsea. The man had brought the feel good factor back to Chelsea after the feeling of uncertainties that plagued Frank Lampard and Maurizio Sarri's tenures. He was even given a contract extension to extend his stay at Chelsea till 2024. So where did it all go wrong?

Well, if you know Chelsea and their history, then you won't be overly surprised. This club sacks managers for fun... and they've shown the door to some of the biggest managers in the game over the years. Just ask Jose Mourinho, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo and more recently, Antonio Conte and Frank Lampard all of whom Chelsea sacked in the past. Cases like Mourinho, Ancelotti, Di Matteo and Conte were even more brutal considering they were sacked less than a year after guiding Chelsea to Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League glories. It didn't matter who you were to former owner Roman Abramovich. You could be sacked at any time. Therefore, when the club was sold in 2022 and Todd Boehly became the new chairman, fans and observers wondered if the new ownership would perhaps be more patient towards managers at the helm.

Needless to say, we have our answers now, at the expense of Thomas Tuchel unfortunately. The new owners at Chelsea have continued that ugly tradition and have wasted no time in dismissing Tuchel after a mixed start to the season and announced Graham Potter as their manager after pricing him away from Brighton. Tuchel's sacking has however generated a wave of arguments in the Football world with opinion split on whether he deserved to be sacked or not. Some say Chelsea lost their bite under him and were on a downward spiral evident by their poor form lately. Others say his sacking is an overreaction, cruel and unfair especially to a manager that has achieved so much in such little time.

But did Tuchel really deserve to be sacked? Honestly, he didn't deserve the sack. The new owners have only been in charge for 100 days, surely they could have given Tuchel more time. The man himself was surprised stating "I didn't see it coming. Obviously I was in the wrong movie." The season has only just started and with 6 games played, Chelsea are 6th on the table having won 3 of those and losing 2. They're only 5 points behind league leaders, Arsenal. There's obviously a long way to go in a very long season ahead with plenty of time to get things right by a man who has clearly showed himself to be a capable manager.. especially at Chelsea. To make matters even more confusing, Tuchel was sacked just days after the transfer window had closed and the club had managed to sign Wesley Fofana, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Denis Zakaria. If they were going to sack Tuchel, why did they back him by signing those players? Why not wait and see what team he was going to make with the new signings? Or did they sign the players for another manager? The latter just seems to be the case at this point.

Another angle could be that Tuchel was sacked for reasons beyond performance on the pitch. Stories are starting to pour out about things that reportedly happened behind the scenes especially towards the end of Tuchel's tenure that could have spelt the end of things for him. One of such stories was that the German manager was allegedly displeased with the departure of Marina Granovskaia and Petr Čech. Čech and Marina were key figures in Abramovich's cabinet at Chelsea and worked closely with Tuchel in transfer activities. All he had to do was tell them who he wanted in or out and these two people would get it done while he (Tuchel) focused on pitch matters. The new owners apparently got rid of Čech and Marina and required Tuchel to be personally involved in transfer dealings, something he did not like. New chairman Todd Boehly reportedly described Tuchel as "a nightmare to work with" in transfer dealings.

There's also the issue of player power, a vice that has been in play at Chelsea from Jose Mourinho's first tenure in 2005. Chelsea have always had influential players like John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Ashley Cole. Players who reportedly had a say and could influence decisions about a manager's future. While it may not be as strong as before, there appears to still be some power play going on at Chelsea with Tuchel reportedly clashing with several players towards the end of his tenure. The man was said to have fallen out with and isolated several players including Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic, Werner, Lukaku, and Hudson-Odoi effectively failing to get the best out of them. Perhaps, this contributed to the owner's decision to sack him and give everyone a clean slate?

Whatever the case might have been, Tuchel's sacking has been harsh and one that many fans and observers do not agree with. Having given Chelsea some of their best performances in recent years, he had become a fan favourite and emotions had developed between the fans and the man himself. To sack a manager just 16 months after winning the Champions League is unfair. Sometimes, managers and players just need some time after poor performances to get things right or find a new formula. In another rumour that has been circulating, Tuchel reportedly begged the new owners for more time to get things right but his pleas fell on deaf ears in a meeting that reportedly lasted only 10 minutes. In an emotional statement he released after his sacking, the former PSG and BVB manager revealed his pain at writing the statement "many years" earlier than he had hoped stating "I am honoured to have been a part of this club’s history and whatever the future holds for me, the memories of the last 18 months will always have a special place in my heart." If anyone deserved more time at Chelsea, it was Thomas Tuchel.

With Graham Potter's appointment as new manager, Chelsea look to have downgraded. That is the honest truth right now. Don't get me wrong, Potter is a brilliant manager and the work he has done at Brighton over the years has been nothing short of outstanding. He deserves to try his hands at a big Club with a big budget like Chelsea. In my opinion, he even stands a great chance of becoming the first ever English manager to win the Premier League. However, his CV at the moment is not good enough compared to Tuchel. He needs to prove himself, he needs time to get to know the team, impart his playing style and weed out any bad seeds. He also needs to identify new signings to improve the team to his taste and let them gel together to form a strong, winning team. These things take time and patience but judging from what we've seen so far, Todd Boehly and the new Chelsea owners appear to be even more ruthless than Roman Abramovich! In that case, Graham Potter might not even need to buy a house in London yet. He might as well type his own exit statement and keep it in a safe place for future use. The fact that he was given a 5 year contract is not a guarantee in any way that he too won't be sacked, just like Thomas Tuchel was. He may well be the next victim of Chelsea's sack culture.