Thomas Tuchel won a trophy and more than two points on average per game with Borussia Dortmund. But the black and yellow past of the new Bayern Munich coach is above all a heap of broken china.
On May 30, 2017, at 10:38 am, the new account @TTuchelofficial tweeted that he was happy to “join” the short message service. Without the verification hook, it seemed to be a fake account, but the management quickly confirmed the queries: Yes, it’s him, Thomas Tuchel is now on Twitter.
The second tweet followed at 12:47 p.m. “It’s a pity that it doesn’t continue”wrote Tuchel, a good half hour before the listed soccer club Borussia Dortmund spread the “corporate news” that the cooperation with @TTuchelofficial would be ended with immediate effect.
The black and yellow limited partnership on shares has to report price-sensitive news ad hoc, and when a layman asks what is considered price-sensitive, they say that the surprise factor should be taken into account.
If it had been possible, BVB could have simply deleted the photo of the trainer from the homepage instead of the “corporate news”, because the separation from Tuchel came as surprising as the sunrise on May 30th.
The Dortmund sports director at the time, Michael Zorc, dutifully said that the planned meeting between the club management and the coach and advisor was “open-ended”, but no one believed that anymore.
Frosty conditions
The relationship had become too frosty over the past few months, too much had happened between the bosses and Tuchel, but also between some players and Tuchel.
On May 27, three days before the supposedly open-ended meeting, BVB had won the cup. Managing Director Hans-Joachim Watzke even smiled when he hugged the smiling Tuchel on the lawn of the Berlin Olympic Stadium. But just a few hours later at the winners’ banquet, the chills returned. Dortmund captain Marcel Schmelzer criticized on the red carpet that Tuchel had not included Nuri Sahin, champion player in 2011 and crowd favorite, in the squad.
There was nothing left to patch, and no one was trying to cover up the cracks more and more provisionally.
See you at the top game
Almost six years later, Thomas Tuchel will meet his old club as the new coach of FC Bayern. On Saturday (April 1st, 2023, from 6.30 p.m. in the audio live stream on sportschau.de and in the ticker) there will be a top game in the Bundesliga. Munich have one point less than Borussia Dortmund before the 26th matchday.
It would be enough explosiveness in the duel between the series champion and the challenger, who actually is one this year. The personnel of Tuchel as the successor to Julian Nagelsmann, who was released ad hoc and worthy of notification, and his past with BVB ensure explosiveness in the square.
More Guardiola than Klopp
How could it have come to this when the beginning was so promising. Tuchel came at the start of the 2015/16 season to replace Jürgen Klopp. He promised less entertainment, but maybe a tad more expertise. BVB won the first eleven competitive games. Then things went downhill a bit, then the game at Bayern went awry.
Tuchel wanted to try something special and surprisingly moved Lukasz Piszczek from his regular place on the right end of the back four to the left end. It was clear to everyone: in his nature, Tuchel is far more Pep Guardiola (who was on the sidelines at Bayern) than Klopp.
BVB ended up second, ten points behind, but with 78 points they had more than before and after that they were never second in the table. In the cup final, Borussia lost to FC Bayern on penalties.
The second season was much more difficult in terms of sport. Even the qualification for the Champions League, which was ultimately mastered, was in danger at times. After defeats at Eintracht Frankfurt and bottom of the table SV Darmstadt, Tuchel nailed his team to the wall.
Disagreement with Mislintat and also Zorc
It is possible that these incidents would have been quickly forgotten if there had not been skirmishes with superiors or important employees, which had a lasting effect. It started in the winter of 2015/16. The contract with Oliver Torres from Atlético was already negotiated, only the signature was missing. Suddenly, however, Tuchel no longer wanted him and the Spanish U21 international had to be canceled. Tuchel fell out with the then Dortmund chief scout Sven Mislintat, and the relationship with Michael Zorc suffered considerably.
For a long time, managing director Watzke remained in the role of mediator, even if it was difficult for him because Thomas Tuchel was so very different from Jürgen Klopp.
Then came the day that became one of the worst in the history of the Dortmund club, but which could have ended much more dramatically. A criminal who has since been sentenced to 14 years in prison wanted to blow up the team bus on April 14, 2017 because he had speculated that BVB shares would fall. There was minor physical damage and severe psychological damage to those involved.
In terms of sport, the attack meant that the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals against AS Monaco was postponed, but only by one day. There are different statements about what happened in the coming hours. After losing the game 2-3, Tuchel claimed that he and the team had not been asked at all and had not felt ready to play again so soon after the traumatic experience.
What happened after the attack?
Others say that Tuchel and the team were very well asked and that they were very surprised that the coach presented it differently. It quickly became clear that in the aftermath of the attack a “dissent” had arisen, as Watzke finally admitted in an interview, which had to lead to the separation.
Now the parties will meet again. It’s not the first time. Tuchel scored as a Paris coach Saint Germain on his former club, knocked him out in the Champions League at the beginning of the corona pandemic. Now the peak in the Bundesliga follows, and it can be felt that the temperatures in the relationship between Watzke and Tuchel have risen at most just above freezing. “Welcome back, Thomas Tuchel”the boss of BVB was quoted, albeit with the note that he was not speaking as the boss of BVB, but in his capacity as head of the DFL supervisory board.