Chelsea's main reason for sacking Thomas Tuchel was due to the German losing the "about 70 per cent" of the dressing room, according to journalist Simon Phillips.

Tuchel was relieved of his duties on Wednesday morning, less than 12 hours after the Blues were surprisingly beaten by Dinamo Zagreb in their Champions League opener.

What's the latest news involving Tuchel?

Tuchel's departure at Chelsea doesn't come as a surprise given their history of sacking managers, but the timing of his exit was a major shock to the footballing world.

It's just 15 months since the ex-PSG and Borussia Dortmund boss guided the Blues to Champions League glory in Lisbon, while he also secured a third place finish last season and reached both domestic cup finals.

GiveMeSport Transfer Verdict

But perhaps the most remarkable factor is that Tuchel lost his job less than seven days after the transfer window closed, with the Londoners spending more than £250m.

Tuchel's final straw was a 1-0 defeat in Croatia against a Zagreb side Chelsea should be beating with a matter of ease.

Instead, it was one of their worst displays during his 20 months in charge and Phillips reckons that his sacking was ultimately down to a breakdown within his squad.

What did Phillips say about Tuchel?

He told GIVEMESPORT: "He was close to Marina Granovskaia, he was close to Petr Cech, both of them have gone and Chelsea are making changes from top to bottom, but the biggest issue from what I've heard was between Tuchel and the players.

"It just got to a point where he lost the majority of the dressing room. About 70 per cent of his squad wanted to leave this summer and a lot of them were pushing for that as well.

"It wasn't a sense of there was a bad atmosphere in the camp or massive blow ups, but there were many disagreements and many arguments between Tuchel and the players, individually, and it's been brewing for a long, long time and many of the key players lost their faith in him and had relationship breakdowns."

Did Tuchel deserve to be sacked?

Chelsea have made a poor start in the Premier League, already dropping eight points in their first six games.

But given he's won the Champions League, Super Cup, Club World Cup, reached two FA Cup finals and one League Cup final, while also keeping Chelsea in the top four, Tuchel has earned the right to turn things around.

Therefore, the German should consider himself extremely unlucky to be out of a job, especially after what he achieved at Stamford Bridge in such a short period of time.