Thomas Tuchel has long been linked with a return to Germany and, in particular, a chance to take up the head coach position at Bayern Munich.
After years of close-calls, the Bavarian giants finally secured the former Chelsea boss’ signature, with Bundesliga insider Christian Falk exclusively revealing to CaughtOffside exactly how they pulled the move off.
“I heard Bayern have been holding talks with Thomas Tuchel for weeks – this is one reason why they had to pull the trigger now, as they were afraid to lose Tuchel for a second time,” the BILD journalist wrote.
“In 2018, there were already talks with Tuchel and he was keen to join after Bayern sacked Carlo Ancelotti. Then Jupp Heynckes came and there was another round of talks with Tuchel after the former admitted he didn’t want to do another season with the club.
“I know from a meeting with Hasan Salihamidžić in his house in Munich in 2018, they talked for three to five hours and they were clear that they wanted to proceed. However, the president at this time, Uli Hoeneß, didn’t want to accept it.
“When they made the final call and said ‘Thomas, we want to do it now,’ he said they were too late and that he’d signed for a new club. He didn’t tell Bayern officials that it was for PSG – but that was indeed the case!
“This time, there was a lot of pressure on Bayern to make a decision given the very concrete interest from Tottenham in Thomas Tuchel.
“We’ve discussed before about the manager being on the list of Real Madrid as well, so Bayern were aware of the possibility that if they didn’t act quickly they would lose him again for a second time to another club.”
With the club’s recent European form perhaps the most admirable aspect of Nagelsmann’s regime, Munich fans will perhaps feel most reassured about their new manager’s record in the Champions League.
According to WhoScored (via Twitter) the German tactician has a 62.3% win rate in the Champions League on top of being…
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