TOMMY TUCHEL could not have done it better had he submitted his CV to LinkedIn or Indeed.
Somehow mustering some gumption from the worst Bayern Munich team in more than a decade to stop a rampant Arsenal dead in their tracks is a spectacular job advert for a manager soon to be looking for work.
GettyThomas Tuchel has proven he is capable of handling the Manchester United job[/caption]
If Man United chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe wasn’t watching from his Old Trafford office or from the cinema room in one of his tax havens, he should have been.
They may have even sat up and taken notice in Newcastle or in the owners’ Riyadh hub as Tuchel reminded everyone of his credentials as a top-level coach with devilish timing.
If change is coming then Tuchel is playing a trump card.
By rights Bayern should have had a penalty against Arsenal in the Champions League on Tuesday.
And with Harry Kane taking it, they would almost certainly be enjoying a 3-2 lead heading into Wednesday’s return leg.
What is fact is that Tuchel’s side turned up and cowed the team that, as far as the current Premier League goes, is the best in England.
It may only add to the questions around Tuchel that after tossing away the only league easier to win than Scotland’s or Spain’s, Munich have sprung to life in Europe.
After 11 years unopposed as German champions, Chelsea’s former manager has chucked it in at home in a remarkable act of ineptitude.
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But freak years can happen.
Leicester have been relegated since beating odds of 5,000-1 to win the 2015-16 Premier league.
Blackburn must surely be an even longer price to ever repeat their title win of 21 years earlier?
Tuchel is an enigma. But that is part of the appeal as much as winning the Champions League with Chelsea just three months after taking the job.
On his first visit back to London since getting the boot from Stamford Bridge in September 2022, the spindly German did not disappoint.
He showed the b******s to drop Bayern legend Thomas Muller from a match which would have had the iconic star’s name all over it only 12 months ago.
That is a call as big as any tactical shift on the pitch. At 34, Muller will have fresher legs next week in the hope of knocking out Arsenal.
Gareth Southgate and Graham Potter are ahead of Tuchel in the bookies’ reckoning to be the next head coach at Manchester United.
Willy Kambwala wants to become rock at the back for Man Utd… but Erik ten Hag probably won’t be around to see it
By Ken Lawrence
ERIK TEN HAG insists he is still the right man to take Manchester United forward.
The Dutchman believes he can recapture their former glories, despite escaping for the second time in a row what could have been humiliation by Liverpool at the weekend.
And teen Willy Kambwala revealed his “passion” is to become a rock at the heart of United’s defence after making just his second start of the season against their bitter rivals.
United trailed 1-0 at half-time on Sunday but fought back to take a 2-1 lead before Mo Salah’s 84th-minute equaliser from the penalty spot.
Ten Hag was pleased with the second-half performance, declaring it “another signal and message for the future,” before adding, “the team and squad have high potential.”
Yet the Old Trafford chief sounds more and more like he has his finger stuck in a leaky dyke and does not think it is going to hold.
Comeback or not, United still threw away a lead for the third time in eight days following their 4-3 defeat to Chelsea and 1-1 draw with Brentford — both deep into injury time.
And his body language suggests he expects to be crossing it to go back to Holland with his P45 this summer
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Southgate has long been criticised for letting loyalty blind him with England.
Potter succeeded Tuchel at Chelsea and was seen as a ‘yes’ man to eccentric Americans Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, who appointed him — to the cost of the team.
Take a straw poll outside Stamford Bridge and see how many Chelsea fans would like Tuchel back.
With no new signings, he took a team that had lost five of the previous ten games and led it from mid-table to fourth in 2021.
At the same time they journeyed to the Champions League final, beating Premier League winners Manchester City in Porto. Nine months later they were club champions of the world.
With Ratcliffe considering swingeing budget cuts at Old Trafford, a coach who can perform wonders on peanuts would be music to his ears.
But apart from the fact Tuchel is a proven winner, unafraid to make big decisions and who does things on the cheap, there is one other ingredient to his methods that makes him irresistible.
After Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal, during which Kane craftily changed his approach when taking a penalty in a major switch in style, Tuchel admitted they came up with the idea in a lift at the team hotel.
How refreshing to know that even the best sometimes make it up as they go along, like the rest of us.
Thomas Tuchel’s career stats
Those numbers in full:
Augsburg II, 2007-2008: P34 W20 D8 L6
Mainz, 2009-2014: P184 W72 D46 L66
Borussia Dortmund, 2015-2017: P107 W67 D23 L17
PSG, 2018-2020: P127 W95 D13 L19
Chelsea, 2021-2022: P100 W60 D24 L16
Bayern Munich, 2023-2024: P52 W32 D7 L13
Trophies: German Cup (Borussia Dortmund); Ligue 1 x2, French Cup, French League Cup, Champions Trophy x2; Champions League, Uefa Super Cup, Club World Cup (Chelsea); Bundesliga (Bayern Munich)
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