After Chelsea sacked Graham Potter, the new club owner Todd Boehly started a search for what would be his third coach in just a little bit of over six months of his reign. In the meanwhile, he appointed Frank Lampard to act in the caretaker capacity until the end of the season but the fourth coach would be selected soon and would take charge immediately after the season was over. There were a lot of candidates who were interested in the position but Julian Nagelsmann's agent now claims that the German football manager was the favourite and the first choice. He, however, stated that Nagelsmann refused to take up the job due to the club's current state. These claims have now come up after almost every media has already confirmed that Argentine Mauricio Pochettino was set to become Chelsea's new coach. 

Some media outlets, however, claim that the Blues' denied that Nagelsmann was their first choice, and only acknowledged that he was among the candidates, but still his agent  Volker Struth is sticking to his word. "I can confirm that Chelsea were quick to call after Nagelsmann's dismissal at Bayern Munich. There were some phone conversations. It was the right decision by Nagelsmann not to go there. It's a club in troubled waters at the moment. And their transfer policy, spending a few hundred million euros, has raised expectations that need to be met. There were also some other issues. He was their number one choice, that was our information. I believe it would have happened if he had wanted it." Volker Struth said. 

The agent of the German coach also described that he found out through the media of the sacking of his client from Bayern Munich. "I was in a Cologne restaurant with some friends. We were drinking a bottle of wine when I got a call from a journalist who said: 'That was quick with Julian!' I answered: 'What do you mean?' And he said: 'How, you don't know that yet? Julian is out and Tuchel is the new coach! We got more and more messages over the course of the evening and then contacted Julian – he didn't know anything either and asked us about the motto: 'Are you kidding me?' One or two hours later, the density of information from the media became so great that my partner Sascha Breese then contacted Hasan Salihamidzic and asked via WhatsApp: 'Do we need to know something?' And then the call came: 'Come to the office on Sabener Strasse tomorrow.' And then we knew there was something to it“ said Volker Struth.

(Image: AFP)