FC Bayern Munich
“No flowers without a title”: Tuchel’s bitter farewell
Don’t expect any farewell presents at the last home game as Bayern coach: Thomas Tuchel. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
Thomas Tuchel wanted a happy ending at FC Bayern. The knockout blow in Madrid continues to have an impact. There will be a farewell against Wolfsburg in the Allianz Arena. The coach’s future is open.
Also with the coach, whose final Bayern tour now begins with the last home game against VfL Wolfsburg and ends six days later in Sinsheim against TSG Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga unspectacularly instead of gloriously.
melancholy? Aggravation? A bit of everything
melancholy? Aggravation? “A little bit of everything” accompany him into the farewell week, which begins with the last 90 minutes in the Munich Arena. “I personally came out of a tunnel for the last ten days,” said Tuchel in the press conference on Saturday. Only Real Madrid was in his head. “We gave our heart and soul in both games. We were eliminated in a bitter way,” he said of the 1:2 after two very late goals from the Whites at the Bernabéu Stadium. “But that’s part of sport. I didn’t want it to be over in eight days,” said the 50-year-old. His successor has not yet been named.
Will it be an emotional last time on the Bayern bench in the Allianz Arena? Tuchel had no answer the day before. He doesn’t expect a big farewell with presents before kick-off. “You don’t need to hand over flowers for an early termination of a contract without a title,” he said dryly. “Of course I’m not satisfied personally. I signed a contract with Bayern Munich to win titles.”
Tuchel: “I did my best”
This was just achieved with the lucky last-minute championship in 2024. This season, however, Tuchel’s team remained completely without a title; constant unrest, injuries and far too many defeats characterized the year. “I did my best,” he said anyway. The Munich fans will probably applaud him again, just as the supporters who traveled with him did after the big but futile semi-final fight in Madrid.
He has not yet made a decision about his future. This will happen “in peace and quiet over the next few weeks”. Where are you going? Leaving Germany again? Back to England, where he won the Champions League with Chelsea FC in 2021? “I have no idea. I’ll think about it calmly. It was planned differently here, but the matter has been clear since February,” said Tuchel: “There have been no discussions with other clubs so far because the task here was all-encompassing. It There is no tendency and no decision in any direction.”
Last order: secure second place
The final task is to secure the runner-up position. Just one point against Wolfsburg would be enough for Bayern (69) to push VfB Stuttgart (70) back out of second place. “We don’t have a normal job, we are top athletes. We can’t let ourselves down,” said Tuchel: “I don’t want to show that I don’t care.”
It won’t be easy. Harry Kane (back), Jamal Musiala (knee), Leroy Sané (pubic bone) and Serge Gnabry (torn muscle bundle) are out injured. Matthijs de Ligt is questionable about this. The problems of Musiala and Sané must also worry national coach Julian Nagelsmann shortly before the start of preparations for the European Championship. “I’ve been playing with painkillers and injections for the last few months,” Musiala revealed after the exit in Madrid. The painful “irritation condition on the outside of the knee” is now a disability, said Tuchel.
Musiala, Sané: Worrying news for Nagelsmann
Winger Sané has only been able to play and train to a limited extent for weeks. “Leroy is currently undergoing pain treatment again,” Tuchel reported: “He will do everything for the European Championships. But I don’t know Julian’s plans, what Julian will accept and how much freedom he will give Leroy for treatments and so on.” Nagelsmann will announce his European Championship squad on Thursday in Berlin.