Carney Chukwuemeka's future at Chelsea now in doubt following Tuchel's sacking

NIGERIA-eligible teenager Carney Chukwuemeka is facing an uncertain future at Chelsea following the club's decision to sack head coach Thomas Tuchel who promoted him to the first team and appeared to have great plans for the youngster.

This morning, Chelsea sacked Mr Tuchel after their 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb last night in the Uefa Champions League. Chelsea have endured a slow start to the Premier League this season and now their Champions League campaign got off to a disastrous start in Croatia yesterday.

New Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has acted fast to remove Mr Tuchel from his position after a hectic summer of spending at Stamford Bridge that saw the club spend more than anyone else in Europe. Mr Tuchel had been a big fan of Anglo-Nigerian Chukwuemeka, even naming as a substitute in Zagreb last night.

Chukwuemeka, 18, who signed for Chelsea during the summer transfer window after his heroics in the recent European U19 Championship, is considered one of the hottest young prospects in the English Premier League. Named in the U19 Euro Team of the Tournament, he just joined Chelsea from Aston Villa, who had queries from him from the likes of Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Arsenal, among others.

Eligible to play for three different countries, Chukwuemeka can represent Nigeria through his father and Austria through birth, as well as England. So highly is he rated that England manager Gareth Southgate stepped up plans to win Chukwuemeka over by visiting the youngster at Chelsea's training ground last month.

A central midfielder, Chukwuemeka has been named in three Chelsea first team squads since he joined the club from Aston Villa in August. Chukwuemeka had been hoping to see some action this weekend when Chelsea face Fulham at Craven Cottage in the Premier League but things now look more uncertain for him.

Brighton manager Graham Potter is the favourite to take charge at Chelsea with the club already having received permission to talk to him. Chelsea are prepared to pay the release clause in Mr Potter's contract after he and Mr Boehly meet this afternoon to thrash out a deal satisfactory to both parties.

Other managers on Mr Boehly 's shortlist are said to include Mauricio Pochettino and Zinedine Zidane. Chelsea invested a one-window Premier League record of £273m to revamp Mr Tuchel's squad this summer, bringing in the likes of Wesley Fofana, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but despite this, the club is struggling.