The following day after Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb, Thomas Tuchel’s sack as Chelsea manager was announced.

The sack comes as a shock just 7 matches into the season, and just after a massive spending spree in the transfer market.

Also just two weeks ago, there were talks of a new contract for the German boss.

Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan thinks there is more than meets the eye with the sacking of Tuchel.

According to Simon Jordan, it has little to do with a football decision.

He also believes that the swift timing of the sack means Chelsea already have a replacement ready.

“They’ve obviously got someone lined up, they’ve made a decision, and God forbid I hope it’s not [Mauricio] Pochettino, but it may well be,” he said on talkSPORT.

“They’ve made a decision, it doesn’t feel like a footballing decision.

“Even I, who have been a major advocate of his, have been talking about him in less glowing terms, I described him as an agitated Peperami man the other day.

“Look, they haven’t been great, but Tuchel has enough currency in footballing terms to have been given an opportunity to correct this slight malaise.

“This game in the Champions League is non-incidental. It’s not a great result and it’s on the back of other not great results against Leeds and Southampton, but I’d be gobsmacked if they didn’t still qualify from their group.

“The bottom line is something else is afoot here. Thomas Tuchel does find himself in situations with football club ownership that has put him at odds with them.

“He was relatively successful at PSG and yet found himself on the other side of an argument with the owners rather quickly, and here he is now, at almost the same amount of time he was at PSG.

“So there’s something more to this, it isn’t just a ruthless owner cutting through what he considers to be the football landscape.

“From his reaction to Antonio Conte, to his grumbling and the performances of the team, Tuchel has not behaved in a way you expect him to this season.

“Irrespective of all of that, this is a seismic decision to take a guy out who is clearly a top-rate manager, who has done great things for Chelsea in the last 18 months.

“I thought he would get the benefit of the post-Abramovich mentality, where they might give him 18 months no matter what you do, but these guys have fallen into the same thing.

“But there is clearly something else going on here.”