Sack Town: RB Leipzig and Chelsea part ways with their coaches after Champions League defeats

The 2022/23 season is just over a month old, and already there have been some major coaching changes around Europe. No, Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann is not one of them.

But Maverick you irrelevant, yet interesting individual, I hear you say, what does any of this have to do with Bayern news, then? Well, it just so happens that two managers were sacked just a couple of hours ago, in the space of just a couple of hours, and they both happen to be German and have Bundesliga experience. One of them was sacked from a Bundesliga club, in fact.

For starters, RB Leipzig parted ways with coach Domenico Tedesco after a 1-4 defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League. Tedesco was one of the best coaches in Germany last season, leading a mid-table Leipzig to the top four, the Europa League semifinals, and their first ever trophy in the DFB-Pokal. However, this season he has been a shadow of himself. At the time of writing, Leipzig sit in eleventh place in the Bundesliga with only five points from five games, and only one win. It seems like the damaging Champions League defeat (at home, no less) was the final straw for the Saxon club.

If that wasn’t enough, even bigger news came out across the Channel in London, where Chelsea FC sacked Thomas Tuchel, also after a Champions League defeat to eastern European opposition, Dinamo Zagreb in this case. Now, this decision raised even more eyebrows than the Tedesco sacking. Tuchel has done little wrong ever since taking over the Blues, leading them to their second ever Champions League title, not to mention a UEFA Super Cup and their first ever Club World Cup. As of now, Chelsea is sixth in the Premier League, but it is still early in the season, and many Chelsea fans are outraged about letting a Champions League-winning coach walk.

What’s next for both these clubs? Well, there have been reports of Leipzig looking to reel in former Borussia Dortmund coach Marco Rose, who was relieved of his duties after last season. As for Chelsea, their main target seems to be Graham Potter of Brighton and Hove Albion. It would have been a lot of fun to see the clubs swap managers, with Chelsea getting Tedesco and Leipzig Tuchel, but that doesn’t seem likely to happen.

Whatever the case may be and whoever Leipzig and Chelsea end up with, it will be a very interesting rest of the season for both clubs.