One of Chelsea’s biggest games of the season will see the Blues line up without their record signing.
Romelu Lukaku has really shot himself in the foot with his words in a recent interview for Sky Italy.
According to Sky Sports, the Belgian said, amongst many other contentious things, that he was unhappy with the way in which things were going in West London.
Telling one of his former Inter colleagues to stay at the club as he would be back to reunite the partnership soon probably wasn’t one of his finest hours either.
Perhaps Lukaku felt he could get away with such candour. After all, players have long held the power in the game. Or at least they did.
The strength of Tuchel’s man-management, seen by him dropping Lukaku for the visit of Liverpool, shifts the narrative back to where it should be.
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The manager calls the shots and the players respond. You can’t have the lunatics ruling the asylum.
Would Jurgen Klopp put up with such ill-advised behaviour? No. Would Pep Guardiola at Man City? No.
Did Sir Alex Ferguson ever worry about who he might upset in pursuit of success? Absolutely not.
All rule with an iron fist and that’s why they are and have been amongst the most successful clubs of the Premier League era.
It’s about time that managers were allowed carte blanche to run teams how they see fit, and to be able to bring players of the modern era, who earn ridiculous amounts, down a peg or two.