Chelsea captain Reece James sent a pointed message to his superiors at Stamford Bridge after hailing Thomas Tuchel as the best coach he has ever worked with. In a now-deleted video clip, the 25-year-old was asked to name the greatest coach from his career so far – and the Blues star had no hesitation in providing his answer. “[Tuchel is] the best [coach from the ones I’ve worked with],” James said of the German boss, when speaking to ITV Sport. “There’s various reasons why. He brought trophies to [Chelsea] when we probably least expected it, in a difficult period.” Curiously, the interview was swiftly removed on Wednesday night and has not resurfaced since. It had been posted from ITV’s social media page on X and it’s yet to be determined why the interview was taken down.
His comments come just days after the right-back earned a recall to the England national team setup, as Tuchel named his first England squad for the upcoming 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia this week. And it appears those performances haven’t been forgotten by the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss. At the same time, it remains to be seen how his current boss Enzo Maresca will view his stance.
James was arguably at his most prolific level when Tuchel was in charge of Chelsea between January 2021 and September 2022. He made 74 appearances during that 21-month period and scored seven goals, as well as creating 12 assists for his team-mates.
He featured regularly as a wing-back in Tuchel’s system and helped the Blues claim their second Champions League title. However, he has been forced to wait patiently for his chance under Maresca. The Italian has shuffled around his options to make room for the England international and created a new central midfield role for him.
While James appears to have a solid relationship with Maresca, the Italian coach stoked the fire between them when he questioned the Blues skipper’s leadership qualities back in October. The Cobham academy graduate had spent a long period injured on the sidelines and Maresca felt the club captain had more to give during his absence.
“He is on the way, he’s doing well, he’s progressing, but from Reece I expected more also in terms of leadership,” Maresca said, when asked how James managed his role as club captain while not playing. “Most of the time when they are captain, they think that because they are captain they have more, ‘because I am the captain, I expect that you give me more’.
“For me, because you are the captain you have to give more. You have to give more than the rest. And sometimes it’s, ‘OK, I am the captain I can give less’. No.
He’s one of the captains and I expected from him, and his team-mates expected from him, to give always more in terms of leadership in general.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk