The early favorite to succeed Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea is allegedly Graham Potter, head coach of Brighton & Hove Albion.
Three further candidates are said to be under consideration: Benfica head coach Roger Schmidt, former Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane, and former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Who will be the next Chelsea FC manager?
The West Londoners made the decision to part ways with the 49-year-old German public on Wednesday morning, just hours after he and his team suffered a humiliating 1-0 away loss to Dinamo Zagreb in their Champions League debut.
100 days after taking over for Roman Abramovich, the club’s new owners, a group led by Todd Boehly, believe that “it is the perfect time to make this move” despite paying Tuchel about £300 million in the summer transfer market.
Potter still has three years left on his Brighton deal, so Chelsea would probably have to pay a substantial sum as compensation if he were to move to Stamford Bridge.
Despite winning the Ligue 1 championship last season, Pochettino hasn’t had a job since being fired from Paris Saint-Germain at the beginning of July.
The Argentine has Premier League experience with Southampton and both Spurs. In 2016, he led Southampton to a second-place finish before leading Spurs to the Champions League final.
While Schmidt only took over at Benfica at the end of May after leaving PSV Eindhoven, Zindane is another manager who is now without a job after departing Real Madrid at the conclusion of the 2020–21 season.
Before returning to Champions League play with a home match against Red Bull Salzburg on Wednesday, Chelsea will prepare for a West London derby in the Premier League against Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday lunchtime.
With only two victories in their first six games of this season, Chelsea had lost seven of their previous 16 Premier League games and trailed league-leading Arsenal by five points.
