The good, the bad and the ugly: Thomas Tuchel's memorable managerial moments
- Albert Pearson
- 31 October 2021
From working wonders with youth teams to fractured relationships, Thomas Tuchel has provided some incredible moments during his rise to prominence.
The German has become a household name in European soccer for his managerial prowess, taking charge of some of Europe's elite in the last few years.
With stints at Borussia Dortmund, PSG and most recently Chelsea, Tuchel has implemented his own style of play to great success. However, it hasn't quite been an easy ride for Tuchel, with him often finding himself at odds with club owners.
Following his Champions League glory with Chelsea last season - as well as the Blues battling it out for this season's Premier League title - Planet Sport take a look at Tuchel's managerial career thus far.
Producing quality
Thoams Tuchel began his coaching career in the youth system at German club VfB Stuttgart. This followed on from an early retirement as a player himself due to a career-ending injury.
At only 27 years of age himself, Tuchel was already starting to make an impact in the youth setup as he aided the development of future German stars, Mario Gomez and Holger Badstuber.
After impressing in his time with Stuttgart, Tuchel returned to where he started out as a young player, being appointed as the youth team co-ordinator with FC Augsburg.
Tuchel continued to impress with the youth teams and ended up being offered the managerial role with Augsburg II. It was here that Tuchel produced more quality yet again as he provided the inspiration behind Julian Nagelsmann's move into coaching.
Tuchel was now impressing a host of top-level German clubs and joined newly promoted side Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga. It was at this club that Tuchel was finally given the freedom to implement his own styles and build his own team.
Known for his ability to develop young players into stars, it was his first season with Mainz that would kickstart the careers of then promising youngsters Adam Szalai and Andre Schurrle.
In the following seasons, Tuchel would also work with the likes of Lewis Holtby, Christian Fuchs and Loris Karius, adding to the depth of stars that the German professor had helped develop into top players.
Financial disputes
Tuchel enjoyed a successful stint with Mainz in what was his first real stint at a senior managerial role. He had successfully turned Mainz into one of the better Bundesliga sides, despite them being one of the financially poorest clubs.
However, all did not end well for Tuchel and Mainz following a fall out with the hierarchy over a financial dispute.
Following successful seasons with the club and securing them a place in the UEFA Europa League competition, Tuchel had hoped that he would be allowed extra funds to improve his squad evenmore.
However, this request was not accepted, much to the despair of Tuchel, and he subsequently asked to be released from his contract later stating: "I couldn't see how we could reinvent ourselves once more the coming summer."
Mainz eventually allowed Tuchel to leave the club following the disagreement. However, despite stepping down as head coach, he wasn't allowed to find a new club until his contract at Mainz would have finished a year later.
Tuchels' Dortmund army
Following the departure of Jurgen Klopp in 2015, Dortmund were quick to pounce to hire Tuchel as their new head coach.
Tuchel quickly revitalized a side that was capable of winning trophies, meaning Tuchel finally had the resources to build the kind of team he wanted.
It didn't take long for Tuchel to really implement his style with Dortmund, leading them to a highly impressive run of 11 consecutive wins at the start of his first season.
He had inherited a side that had struggled in the previous season, finishing a disappointing seventh in the league, but Tuchel had reignited Dortmund's fire with a respectable second-place finish in the Bundesliga as well as a cup final appearance in the DFB-Pokal.
Tuchel would develop his side even further in the following season by bringing in the likes of Ousmane Dembele, Marc Bartra and Raphael Guerreiro in the summer transfer window.
Dortmund now boasted a truly formidable team, and one in which Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang arguably played his best ever football, recording an impressive 56 goals in 63 league appearances under Tuchel.
This rejuvenated side went on to win their first silverware in five years, and Tuchel's first major honour as a coach in the form of the DFB-Pokal.
Goals from Aubameyang and Dembele in the final showcased Tuchel's attacking football clearly as Dortmund looked back to their title-winning best.
Strained relationships
Though it looked like a match made in heaven with Dortmund and Tuchel, things weren't quite as they seemed behind the scenes.
In a shock turn of events, just three days after the DFB-Pokal heroics Tuchel was sacked by Dortmund due to a fractured relationship with the hierarchy once again.
Tuchel endured numerous fall-outs with those above him at the club. One of the biggest disagreements followed Dortmund's UEFA Champions League tie against Monaco, which still took place despite Dortmund's team bus being attacked on the way.
The head coach publicly criticised CEO of the club, Hans-Joachim Watzke, for ignoring the squad's wishes to not carry on with the game as they didn't feel prepared to play.
Tuchel had also fallen out with the hierarchy at Dortmund for going back on their promises to keep Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan at the club. They were all eventually sold, much to the frustration of Tuchel.
The then Dortmund manager was adamant that he wanted to be able to build his own team with a view to future success, and that meant that he wanted the final say on transfers in and out of the club.
It saw Tuchel continue to clash with Watzke as players that Tuchel wanted to sell were kept by the club, and players that Tuchel wanted to sign were blocked from a move.
This disagreement on transfers resulted in a training ground bust-up between Tuchel and chief scout, Sven Mislintat, in which the latter was banished from the training ground by Tuchel.
It was reported that Tuchel sent an accidental text to the Sporting Director at Dortmund instead of his agent, venting his frustrations about the club.
Those strained relationships saw Tuchel being sacked by the club after it was deemed that they were not quite the perfect fit after all.
Transfer window madness
Following the abrupt departure at Dortmund, Tuchel was appointed as the head coach of French side Paris Saint-Germain as the Ligue 1 giants continued their search for European dominance.
Tuchel took this task seriously as he quickly looked to build a team capable of winning the Champions League. With the financial backing of a club like PSG, this was very much a reality.
Tuchel didn't take long to add to his new squad as the permanent transfer of Kylian Mbappe was announced soon after his arrival.
He also went on to secure the signature of numerous other players, including Gianluigi Buffon, Thilo Kehrer and Juan Bernat.
However, a major reshuffle in the team meant that PSG would have to sell a number of players to adhere to the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations.
As a result, Javier Pastore, Yuri Berchiche and Goncalo Guedes were all sold in the same window.
It was clear from the get go that Tuchel meant business with his major squad reshuffle, with him stamping his authority on the clubs transfer business.
However, despite acquiring a number of new players, Tuchel publicly revealed that he was unhappy that the club wasn't able to improve either of the full-back positions.
Despite having the means to improve the squad, Tuchel was once again unhappy with his clubs transfer business.
Transforming PSG
Tuchel started life at his new club in impressive fashion. His first game in charge was a 4-0 win over rivals Monaco to win the Trophee des Champions.
This early indicator of success was followed up by a record breaking start to the season, with PSG recording the most wins to start a domestic league season with 14 straight victories, followed by the most league points before Christmas in Ligue 1 with 47 points.
Tuchel would go on to secure his first ever league title win in his first season with PSG, but it was the following season that his side really started to impress.
His new PSG side improved even further, producing a highly impressive campaign in the 2019/20 season.
Following the halt to football due to the Covid-19 pandemic, PSG were awarded the Ligue 1 title as they sat in first place when the league was ultimately cancelled.
When football across the world resumed, PSG were allowed to compete in both the Coupe de France final and the 2020 Coupe de la Ligue final, eventually winning them both.
Added to the early season retention of the Trophee des Champions, Tuchel had completed the domestic quadruple and domination of French football.
Tuchel's side didn't stop there either as the German guided PSG to their first ever Champions League final, and their first European final since 1997.
However, PSG narrowly lost the final to German side Bayern Munich, but Tuchel had taken PSG further than anyone had achieved before.
A frosty finish with PSG
In a familiar tale for Tuchel, things were not as they seemed beneath all of the success, and a frosty relationship with the club's hierarchy soon revealed itself.
Tuchel was sacked by the club only a day after a 4-0 victory over Strasbourg in the 2020/21 season, much to the surprise of many.
However, recent altercations with the club's hierarchy had created a frosty environment around the club.
Sporting director of the club, Leonardo, and Tuchel had come to blows following a fall-out over the club's transfers once again.
Tuchel wasn't happy that the club had allowed too many free transfers to leave the club, as well as their inability to bring in full-back reinforcements.
The signing of defensive midfielder Danilo Pereira had also caused friction between the two as he was signed against Tuchel's wishes of needing a central defender instead.
It was further reported that Tuchel was left unhappy with the sporting director's interference with training methods and team selections. For a man that likes to have full control over his team, it became clear that Tuchel could not work with Leonardo.
Tuchel made it public that he wasn't happy with the situation as well, stating that he felt more like a 'politician' rather than a coach for the club.
It resulted in a predictable backlash from the PSG board as Leonardo revealed that they were unhappy with the German's comments, stating that Tuchel must "respect the people above" him as well as labelling Tuchel's comments as damaging to their club.
A familiar outcome for the German coach followed, with him parting ways with a club on bad terms once again.
Instant impact for Chelsea
It didn't take long for Tuchel to find a new club as he was appointed as the new head coach at Chelsea only a month after leaving PSG.
Tuchel came into the club to try and turn their season around following their disappointing Premier League form.
Chelsea had high hopes at the start of the season following a summer transfer assault that added to their existing exciting young squad. However, things didn't quite work out for the new look side as they fell to tenth in the league.
Tuchel was then brought in to salvage their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League, and he did just that.
Chelsea went on to record an impressive run of 14 consecutive games without defeat under Tuchel, setting the record for the longest unbeaten run for a head coach in Chelsea's history.
This incredible run saw Chelsea climb from tenth in the league back up to fourth spot and amongst the Champions League qualification places once again.
This sudden resurgence in form continued into cup competitions as well as Tuchel guided Chelsea to yet another FA Cup final match after beating Premier League leaders Manchester City in the semi-final. They fell at that final hurdle, though, losing out to Leicester City at Wembley.
Neither of these accomplishments were his most impressive however as Tuchel had also guided Chelsea to the final of the Champions League for the first time in nine years.
Having beaten the likes of Real Madrid, Porto and Atletico Madrid on the way, Tuchel had turned Chelsea into a formidable side once again in double quick time.
Champions League redemption
Losing the 2020 Champions League final with PSG left many wondering whether Tuchel truly is one of the world's best managers.
However, the German was able to redeem himself a year later - leading Chelsea to only their second Champions League title.
Tuchel put on a tactical masterclass as his side beat Manchester City 1-0. Kai Havertz grabbed the winning goal in a tense final in Porto.
"Somehow we were like... you could feel it."
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) May 29, 2021
"We wanted to be the stone in the shoe of Man City."
Thomas Tuchel on another fantastic Chelsea display against Man City 👌
🎙 @TheDesKelly | #UCLfinal pic.twitter.com/qKGTADUYDW
Speaking about the victory, Tuchel told BT Sport: "I was so grateful to arrive a second time [in the final]. I felt different. We were somehow... You could feel it getting closer.
"The [players] were determined to win this. We wanted to be a stone in their shoe. We encouraged everybody to step up and step out, to be more brave and create dangerous counter-attacks."
