Thomas Tuchel pleaded not to be sacked in final phone call with his Chelsea bosses

Thomas Tuchel pleaded for the opportunity to turn Chelsea’s season around a swift 10-minute phone call which concluded with his sacking.

New owner Todd Boehly made the biggest decision of his tenure so far on Wednesday morning and dismissed the 49-year-old less than 24 hours after last night’s dismal defeat against Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.

According to The Sun, Tuchel reported for work at Chelsea’s Cobham training base earlier today but nobody was there to greet him.

The former PSG and Borussia Dortmund manager was quickly ushered into a conference call with the Chelsea hierarchy after which he was left ‘shocked’ having asked for time to mastermind an improvement in the team’s form.

Tuchel oversaw a club-record spending spree of £280million but the enormous outlay has failed to translate into instant results with defeats against Leeds and Southampton leaving Chelsea playing catch-up in the race for the Premier League title.

The German’s backroom team will remain in place ahead of this weekend’s west London derby against Fulham, while Tuchel will pocket an eye-watering £13million payout.

Boehly has already begun the hunt for Tuchel’s successor, meanwhile, with Brighton’s Graham Potter the current frontrunner.

The Blues will not be put off by the 47-year-old’s £16m buyout clause and have already been given permission to begin talks.

Former Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino and Real Madrid’s serial Champion League winning ex-manager Zinedine Zidane are also under consideration.

Despite the impressive job he has done in turning the Seagulls into an established Premier League force, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes Pochettino would be the better pick.

He told Sky Sports: ‘There’s no doubt he’s one of England’s top coaches because there’s not too many English coaches in the Premier League.

‘You look at the job Graham Potter’s doing right now, you think that Pochettino is out of work and might be easier to get into the club.

‘If you asked me, if I was a Chelsea supporter who I’d like to see manage my club, I’d go for Pochettino.’

Carragher has warned Potter that he might be promised a lengthy stay at Stamford Bridge to build a project, but history shows that he should be wary of those words.

‘It’s a very ruthless club and I’m not sure he is the right fit – maybe Chelsea are saying they want to do things differently in the future in terms of having a coach in charge rather than a manager or they do things behind the scenes differently,’ said Potter.

‘But if I was Graham Potter, I would find that very hard to believe that they’re going to do things differently.

They’ve just got rid of a manager six games into the season. Of course, it’s a huge step up in his managerial career and Chelsea are still one of the top clubs.

‘They are still world champions right now, but you fear for Graham Potter that he’ll be in the same boat as every other Chelsea manager has for the last 10 years, unless he gets results instantly they’ll be getting themselves another new manager in 12 months.’

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