Chelsea's pursuit of Manchester United superstar Cristiano Ronaldo left Thomas Tuchel exasperated with Todd Boehly: Reports

Chelsea's decision not to sign Manchester United superstar Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer led to friction between owner Todd Boehly and Thomas Tuchel, according to reports.

The German boss has been sacked following a poor start to the season and Matt Law of The Telegraph has listed the reasons why the decision was made. One reason was that Boehly was keen on signing Ronaldo, who was widely reported to be searching for a move away from Old Trafford.

Tuchel was strongly against the idea of bringing the Portuguese forward to Chelsea, as he was certain that the Portuguese would not have fit into the German's system. According to the report, the two disagreed on the issue and Boehly seemed reluctant to take Tuchel's side on the matter.

The Blues manager became 'exasperated' at having to explain his reasons for not wanting the legendary attacker.

Chelsea had previously sold Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner, which left them short in the centre-forward department. Rather than bringing in the five-time Ballon d'Or winner, the Blues instead brought in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Barcelona.

The Gabon international has a good history with Tuchel as the pair thrived together at Borussia Dortmund. Ronaldo, who scored 24 goals in 38 games for Manchester United last season, remains at Old Trafford after failing to secure a move.

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Thomas Tuchel furious with Chelsea players during final press conference

In what would be his final act as Chelsea boss, Tuchel laid into his players following their 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.

After the loss on Tuesday night (September 6), the German questioned the attitude of his players, with Sky Sports quoting him as saying:

"I'm angry on myself. I'm angry on our performance. It's not aggressive enough on the ball, it's not enough individually or enough as a team. Not a lot [of players are playing at the top of their game]. It's obvious that we're underperforming. It's a lack of determination. A lack of hunger and intensity."

"You cannot expect to win games. We are clearly nowhere near where we want to be. I just know that I need time to digest it and find solutions. It's a story of the last games - we start okay. But then we lack precision. We lack the smell of blood."

The German tactician concluded:

"It's clearly my job to analyze it. Clearly we need to be much better. We are not happy with our results. We are not happy with our performances. I'm a bit surprised by this performance today."