It was a sad one for me – Antonio Rudiger reacts to Tuchel’s sack

Former Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has revealed his shock at the decision of the new Chelsea owners to sack Thomas Tuchel.

Tuchel was sacked just after 6 League games into the new season – a move that shocked Rudiger, as Tuchel was heavily backed in the transfer market.

He told Sport 1: “They let him get new players only to then let him go after a few games. I was surprised at the speed. The day of his release was a sad one for me. I wrote to him afterwards & thanked him for everything.

“If you look at where we came from and where he took us, he did the impossible. But you know how it is in football. Sometimes you’re the hero, sometimes the bogeyman.”

Rudiger admitted that he learnt life the hard way at Chelsea, after nearly being frozen out under Frank Lampard.

“At Chelsea I had to learn it the hard way,” Rudiger added.

“I was always ready to play and luckily with Thomas Tuchel a coach came along who put his faith in me and showed me that I was an important player for him.”