The agent of Julian Nagelsmann has claimed Chelsea are “in troubled waters” and believes his client would have got the job if he “wanted it”.
Chelsea dismissed Graham Potter in April despite the fact he signed a five-year contract when he replaced Thomas Tuchel last September.
The decision to get rid of Tuchel certainly raised a few eyebrows and was one of the first indications that Todd Boehly doesn’t really know what he is doing.
Having purchased the Premier League club last May, Boehly has conducted a huge overhaul that wasn’t necessary in the first place.
He has spent around £600million on several new players and is set to appoint his fourth manager in less than a year.
Tellingly, Roman Abramovich, who grew a reputation for having little patience with managers, never sacked two permanent managers in the same season during his lengthy spell at Stamford Bridge. Boehly did so in his first season.
Frank Lampard is in charge until the end of the season with former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino set to be appointed the club’s new permanent head coach.
Pochettino was also interviewed for the job last September but missed out to English manager Potter.
And the Argentine was once again not Boehly’s number-one choice this time around, according to Nagelsmann’s agent, Volker Struth.
Multiple reports suggested that the former Bayern Munich manager was Chelsea’s priority following the dismissal of Potter.
And Struth has now confirmed that this was the case, claiming the Blues “were quick to call” after Nagelsmann left Bayern in late March.
The German manager’s agent was pretty brutal in his assessment of Chelsea, saying they are “in troubled waters at the moment” and that Nagelsmann was “right” to snub them.
Struth told Bild’s podcast Phrasenmaher: “I can confirm that Chelsea were quick to call. There were some phone conversations.
“It was the right decision [by Nagelsmann] not to go there. It’s a club in troubled waters at the moment. And their transfer policy, spending a few hundred million euros, has raised expectations that need to be met. There were also some other issues.
“He was their number one [choice], that was our information. I believe it would have happened if he had wanted it.”
Nagelsmann has also been linked with a move to Spurs but has reportedly withdrawn from negotiations.
Feyenoord’s Arne Slot is now the favourite to replace Antonio Conte with Ryan Mason in charge until the end of 2022/23.
Spurs are also believed to be interested in former Leicester City and Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers and Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso.
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