Thomas Tuchel was appointed as the Chelsea coach as owner Roman Abramovich sacked Frank Lampard. After the sudden removal of Lampard, a major threat was the disintegration of the team into their respective supporter’s group. Thomas Tuchel played his nerves and was very friendly and calm with those who were with Lampard in his tenure.
Thomas Tuchel has played a big role in convincing Frank Lampard’s former assistant coach Anthony Barry to remain at the club even after Lampard’s dismissal. Barry along with Joe Edwards joined Lampard’s coaching team at the start of this season and has become an important name on the training field.
It is very noteworthy that how Chelsea has gone from struggling on set-pieces last season to being one of the best since his arrival this season. Barry, along with fellow assistant coach Joe Edwards led Chelsea training sessions during the time between the Lampard dismissal and Tuchel’s appointment.
The German coach considers Barry as an important part of his Chelsea coaching team. As per reports of The Athletic’s Chelsea correspondent, Johnson had a conversation with Barry and Edwards to reassure that they continue to carry out their roles.
“I think [Barry] is a highly-valued member of the old regime,” Johnson told The Athletic’s Straight Outta Cobham podcast.
“The impression I got was that Tuchel wanted to speak to Barry and Edwards to fine-tune their roles to reassure them. That conversation had a big say in Barry’s staying at Chelsea.
“It must have been quite tempting to start a managerial career with Fleetwood to certainly go to the next level, but he’s made quite a big impact in a short amount of time at Chelsea. Defensive record has improved, and he’s a very vocal character and I think Tuchel likes that.”
Johnson also said that the board’s wanted to have some old faces as well amidst the managerial transition in the middle of the season, so that played a big part in Edwards’ staying at Chelsea.
