[From left to right: Harry Kane, Thomas Tuchel and Randal Kolo Muani… how big of a shake-up could we see happen in the Bundesliga this summer?]
Bayern tried to keep Julian Nagelsmann this season, due in no small part to clauses in his contract that would have meant it would have been easier to fire him on July 1.
There are a few reasons why they decided to go in a different direction: one is that the team lost 10 points on Dortmund in 2023. If he hadn’t beaten PSG in the Champions League, he would have been fired earlier. Another thing was that he lost the dressing room; all the leaders in the team had concerns and there were technical questions over his decision-making. The handling of João Cancelo was a case in point, with Nagelsmann struggling to work out how to use him.
I heard Bayern have been holding talks with Thomas Tuchel since the beginning of the week – this is one reason why they had to pull the trigger now, as they were afraid to lose Tuchel for a second time.
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.
What’s also very interesting is where this leaves Julian Naglesmann. I know he was very surprised when Bayern…
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