[ad_1]
PSG and coach Thomas Tuchel have never been happy together, the inevitable separation will come on Christmas Eve. Possible successors are now available.
The German had recently complained about the lack of recognition in Paris.
Photo: Christian Schrödter (Imago)
It was only a matter of time, the breakdown was already very advanced, impossible to recover: Thomas Tuchel is no longer the coach of Paris Saint-Germain. “C’est fini”, he writes “L’Équipe” with the laconic version of a long-awaited performance. It’s over.
And if you’re still talking about a surprise, just for the right moment: at Christmas, after a 4-0 win over Strasbourg. Tuchel’s contract would have expired next summer anyway: six months, one could have endured that. With PSG’s sporting director, Brazilian Leonardo, the weather had gotten so bad that any pretext was good enough for a quick separation and, the allusion be allowed, somehow un-Christian.
Tuchel himself gave the pretext with his interview on the German radio station Sport 1. Before the game against Strasbourg he had given so much to talk about that TT had to explain himself after the game.
Not enough recognition?
Two passages were central. One was about the coach lamenting the little recognition given to his team (and him), even though they won “almost everything” last season. Of course, he is right: PSG won the Ligue 1 title, both French cups and in the Champions League they reached the final against Bayern.
And yet she never got the feeling, Tuchel said, that people appreciated the services. That is sometimes a bit sad and bitter. The expectations are simply extreme. It is always said that Di María, Mbappé and Neymar have: “It is normal that they win in Bordeaux.”
Do you always have to be able to win with these types of stars?
Photo: Sven Simon (Imago)
In the second passage with some potential for emotion, Tuchel reflected on the role that one has as a PSG coach. In the first six months he wondered if he was a coach or a sports politician, a sports minister: “What is my role as a coach in such a club?” After the championship game against Strasbourg, he said it was “a joke in German”. “But the translation was not correct, the body was not authorized either.” A stupid misunderstanding at the end? Lost in translation?
In hindsight, it can be said that Tuchel’s participation in Paris, despite the obvious successes, despite the titles and trophies and the great experience at the Final Eight in Lisbon with the suddenly discovered collective spirit of a team of highly individualists paid, was ultimately a major misunderstanding.
The identity of the game was missing until the end
When the Qatari owners of PSG brought the former BVB coach to Paris in 2018, they were hopeful that he would honor his reputation and, unimpressed by the big names, teach the team great modern football that would eventually take them to the top. the highlight: the only one who counts, namely the European. The Emir of Qatar and his emissaries have been pursuing the goal of winning the premier class since 2011. Everything else is vegetables.
No coach from the Qatari era has come as close to goal as Tuchel, not Carlo Ancelotti, not Laurent Blanc, not even Unai Emery. And yet one was never really satisfied. Tuchel failed to give the team a playing identity, he was rarely spectacular. In the end, it was often the individual class of superstars that made the decision; you didn’t feel like an orchestrated ensemble.
His leadership qualities were soon questioned: world celebrities in the dressing room always loomed a few spheres above him – at least that’s how he made an impression. Sometimes the players showed their displeasure quite frankly.
However, in the summer of 2019, when the Qataris brought Leonardo back to Paris, Tuchel’s situation became truly precarious again. “Leo” used to play for PSG when the young club was still largely province-province soccer in the otherwise provincial Ligue 1. The old and new sports director never got along with Tuchel, as two worlds collided.
They rarely agreed: Tuchel and Leonardo.
Photo: Imago
Leonardo has been closely linked to Calcium since his time at AC Milan: most of the transfers in his first and now also in his second term as “Directeur sportif” are in the Italian football market. Tuchel was anything but happy with the last Mercato and also made it known publicly, which did not exactly help improve the climate.
After the final lost in the Champions League, PSG released some well-deserved support, including the captain and head of defense, Brazilian Thiago Silva, as well as center forward Edinson Cavani and full-back Thomas Meunier. Tuchel thought that Italians Alessandro Florenzi, Moise Kean and last minute signing Rafinha did not make up for the loss in any way. The two rivals met to discuss, but there was probably nothing left to consolidate.
Who will be on the sidelines now?
Since then, it has been said in the French media that Tuchel would likely end his contract because they did not want to afford a second coaching salary in the crisis. The contract will definitely not be extended, no matter what comes next.
And what came was not in any way inspiring. PSG are currently third in Ligue 1, one point behind Lyon and Lille. In the Champions League, the Parisians were able to qualify for the round of 16, in the end even as group winners, but only with difficulty. And now it’s up to FC Barcelona, once again. The memories of 2017, of that memorable and monumental 1: 6 at Camp Nou, still resonate.
The emir in Doha is said to have considered for a moment whether he should abandon this costly adventure. So far, the Qataris have spent 1.5 billion euros on gaming staff alone.
A possible successor to Tuchel is Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, who previously coached Tottenham Hotspur and also reached the Champions League final in 2018 with the Londoners. Leonardo is reported exclusively, and «L’Équipe» – in unison.
Mauricio Pochettino is traded as his successor.
Photo: Sven Simon (Imago)
Pochettino was a PSG player, defender, a long time ago. The name of Massimiliano Allegri, a former Turin Juventus coach, is now spreading. Nobody who gets the position is enviable: under four trophies there is nothing, and one of them has to be the handlebars.
