What makes Chelsea’s manager so successful? We find out from people who have known him since his school days
Christian Heidel laughs as he remembers a story that sums up Thomas Tuchel’s obsessive attention to detail. “We were in a training camp in Austria and had a match against Olympiakos,” Mainz’s sporting director says. “Thomas was looking closely at the lawn. He was measuring the height, sniffing the grass. He was so thrilled about this pitch that he wanted me to transfer the groundsman to Mainz. The next day the groundsman called me and said: ‘I heard that we’re going to have some talks about a contract.’ The deal didn’t happen but it shows what a perfectionist he is.”
Heidel, who gave Tuchel his break when he put him in charge of Mainz’s first team in 2009, is not the first person to marvel at the
Chelsea manager’s quest for perfection. Hans Komm, who taught PE at the German’s Simpert-Kraemer high school, remembers a gifted sportsman who possessed a surprisingly bright tactical mind for a teenager.