Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
In a week where Arsene Wenger won a Cup Final and then was handsomely rewarded with a new 2 year contract unfortunately it was not the case for Thomas Tuchel as after winning the German Cup at the weekend he was shown the exit door by Borussia Dortmund.
A season where the German giants finished third in the Bundesliga and also beat Eintracht Frankfurt in the German Cup Final was still not enough for Tuchel to keep his position as Dortmund manager and after talks with chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke it was felt best that he was no longer in charge.
It has been reported that relations have been strained since the explosion before their Champions League Quarter Final tie with Monaco back on April 11th. The bone of contention for Tuchel was that he claims neither he nor his players were consulted about whether they should play the Champions League quarter-final home tie against Monaco less than 24 hours after three explosions in the area of the team bus.
It is fair to say that Dortmund were not at the races in that 1st leg at Signal Iduna-Park and it left them with too much of a job to do in the return leg in Monte Carlo. It was always going to be a difficult situation as to when exactly can you reschedule in a European tie with both teams obviously having domestic matters to attend to the following weekend.
With relationships falling apart at the seems only a 3rd place finish in the Bundesliga would not have done Tuchel too many favours as the club was overtaken by RB Leipzig as the only team that attempted to keep Bayern Munich honest this season.
And with that in addition to the falling out with chief executive Watzke it seems as if regardless if he did bring home silverware in the form of the German Cup that the writing was very much on the wall and the news today brings an end to the 43 year old’s two year stint at Dortmund.
For a couple of hours at least people were putting two and two together and getting five by assuming that Tuchel was going to be the new Arsenal manager. But as we know now the Wenger Out bridage were going to have to make do with disappointing news.
So it’s disappointing news both Thomas Tuchel and the Wenger Out brigade today for slightly differing reasons, while for Dortmund the hunt for a new manager begins in earnest with Lucien Favre of Nice believed to be in the early front running.
