Thomas Tuchel has performed a drastic U-turn on his opinion on Tottenham by claiming he had no idea they are a London-based club.
Appointed Chelsea boss on Tuesday, Tuchel was in the Stamford Bridge dugout as the Blues drew 0-0 with Wolves the following evening.
It's been a whirlwind few days for the German and he will scarcely have a chance to catch his breath with games against Burnley and Tottenham fast approaching.
While Chelsea are historically bitter rivals with Spurs, Tuchel previously admitted he has a soft spot for the north London club because he "liked the name so much" as a child.
Now instilled in the Stamford Bridge hot seat, Tuchel has had to hastily revise his opinion of Chelsea's old enemy.
“I heard the name Tottenham Hotspurs, which sounded like a big adventure and gave me a big advantage playing with my friends because they had no idea where that club was. I talked about that story,” Tuchel told reporters on Thursday.
“That was one of my first experiences. I didn’t even know it’s a club from London. But now I’m absolutely aware I work for their big rivals and you can be very, very sure we will do everything we can to beat them next week.”
Tuchel's previous admission about his affinity with Tottenham came when he was Borussia Dortmund boss back in 2016.
Ahead of a Europa League fixture with Spurs, he said: "As a little kid, in my garden, when I played [football] I was always [playing] as a team from the Bundesliga but there was one game when I played as Tottenham Hotspur because I liked the name so much."
Tuchel will hope to pick up his first win as Chelsea boss against Burnley on Sunday, before the crunch trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next Thursday.
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