Chelsea Appoints Thomas Tuchel as New Manager, Replacing Lampard

The German coach had been in the club’s good graces for several weeks, even before his departure from Paris. Thomas Tuchel therefore signs an eighteen-month contract with the possibility of an extension. The club’s management is counting on the well-stocked record of the technician to raise the level of the team. At Chelsea, he will find Christian Pulisic and Thiago Silva, whom he coached during his stays in Dortmund and Paris respectively. He will also be able to get to know the Moroccan Hakim Ziyech, recently recruited and who was one of the players that Frank Lampard was counting on to finish the season in style.

The German technician will have to succeed where his predecessor failed, namely to raise the level of the players recruited at a high price but who have not yet managed to really show their potential. "Thomas Tuchel has been appointed the new head coach of Chelsea. He is moving to Stamford Bridge after a two-and-a-half-year period with French champions Paris Saint-Germain, which ended last month. He will be the first German to manage Chelsea and arrives after guiding PSG to four major honors and the Champions League final during his time in the French capital," the club said in a statement.

For his part, the new coach is well aware of the magnitude of the task ahead of him and is eager to get to work. He salutes the work done by Frank Lampard and "the legacy he has created at Chelsea." The 47-year-old German becomes the 11th full-time manager appointed by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich since he bought the club in 2003. As for Chelsea’s director, Marina Granovskaia, she describes Tuchel as "one of Europe’s best coaches," adding "there is still a lot to play for and a lot to achieve, this season and beyond."