Manchester United has expressed concern over Thomas Tuchel potentially clashing with the club’s leadership if he’s appointed to replace Erik ten Hag.
Tuchel is set to leave Bayern Munich at the end of this season, despite the German giants being one game away from the Champions League final. In February, with the Bundesliga title slipping away from the Bavarians’ grasp for the first time since 2012, Bayern announced that they’d reached an agreement with Tuchel to part ways, making him available this summer.
That’s when United could be in the market for a manager, as Ten Hag’s position remains under intense scrutiny after a miserable second campaign at the helm. New co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS colleagues are currently weighing up Ten Hag’s future and assessing replacement candidates, with Tuchel among them.
However, there are concerns about the German’s history of clashing with his superiors at previous clubs. Tuchel’s five-year spell with Mainz came to an end in 2014 following a dispute with directors over transfer funds, while he was sacked by Borussia Dortmund three years later after a breakdown of trust between himself and the club’s board.
At Paris Saint-Germain, he clashed with sporting director Leonardo, who claimed that Tuchel disrespected the club prior to his dismissal in late 2020. The Chelsea job soon followed but after a change of ownership at Stamford Bridge, his trophy-laden spell ended in acrimonious fashion, never gelling with the new regime led by Todd Boehly.
Despite only being in charge of Bayern for just over a year, there’ve been plenty of reports claiming that Tuchel doesn’t see eye to eye with the club’s hierarchy. A section of the dressing room was said to have turned against the 50-year-old earlier this year but since agreeing to go their separate ways at the end of this term, Bayern’s form has steadily improved – although they’re yet to find his successor.
After current Austria manager Ralf Rangnick rejected the job on Thursday, Tuchel admitted that his decision to leave Bayern isn’t set in stone, saying: “Everything is possible. This is an agreement, so this can’t be changed”.
“Well, you can change every contract by mutual consent because we had a contract as well and then we agreed on ending it early, so everything is possible. But the answer is the same: the agreement stands and the agreement exists.”
Ten Hag has even been discussed as an option for Bayern, having coached the club’s reserve side from 2013 to 2015. A straight swap could suit both parties and if United were to appoint Tuchel, they’d hope that Ratcliffe’s new regime would help alleviate the frustrations which he’s felt at previous clubs.