Glenn Hoddle believes Chelsea would be ‘in a better state’ if new England boss Thomas Tuchel was still in charge at Stamford Bridge.
Tuchel took over at Chelsea in January 2021, replacing club legend Frank Lampard, and went on to enjoy a largely successful if turbulent 20-month spell in west London.
The German ended his first season at Stamford Bridge by lifting the Champions League trophy – Chelsea beating Manchester City 1-0 in the 2021 final – and having reached the FA Cup final.
Chelsea reached two domestic cup finals the following season but lost both to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
A change of ownership at Stamford bridge and a poor start to the 2022-23 season cost Tuchel his job but his successor, Graham Potter, only lasted seven months before he too was sacked.
Chelsea blew hot and cold under Mauricio Pochettino last season and have impressed under Enzo Maresca this term, sitting fifth in the Premier League after nine games and top of the Europa Conference League.
Hoddle believes Chelsea are ‘on their way back’ under Maresca but still says they would be in a better position overall if Tuchel had not been sacked and was still in charge.
Tuchel spent two years at Bayern Munich after leaving Chelsea and was last month appointed as the new England boss, replacing Gareth Southgate who quit after the Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain.
Asked for his thoughts on the appointment, ex-England star and manager Hoddle said on The Overlap with Sky Bet: ‘I like him.
‘I’ve spent a bit of time with him and had a few interviews with him and spoke to him after. I like him.
‘Look at what he did at Chelsea and what happened to them after he left… He won the Champions League there.
‘He should still be there now and they would be in a better state. I think Chelsea are back by the way, I think they’ve got a good chance of getting themselves back there.
‘But they went missing for a while there. If he would have stayed…’
Returning to the topic of German coach Tuchel taking charge of England, Hoddle added: ‘I’m happy on the football front, I’m delighted.
‘It’s about putting the best jockey on the horse, it doesn’t mean the horse is always going to win.
‘The World Cup is a hard trophy to win but Tuchel is the second best jockey out there for me after Pep Guardiola.
‘All the other rubbish, with him being German, we’re past that. If [former Liverpool manager] Jurgen Klopp got the job no one would have moaned.’
While Chelsea have enjoyed a largely impressive start to the season, they were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Newcastle United on Wednesday night.
Speaking after the 2-0 defeat, Maresca said: ‘I think it [making changes] works if we analyse the performance, if we analyse the result it didn’t work, but for 22-23 minutes, until their goal, we were in control.
‘Then after the goal we lost control for 10 minutes, where we also conceded the second one.
‘Again, the last 10 minutes of first half we had two clear chances that unfortunately we didn’t score. Second half we were in control of the game.
‘The most important thing is the result. But the performance, I think we lost the game because of 10 minutes after the first goal we conceded, then for the rest we were quite good.’
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