Thomas Tuchel Says he was Misunderstood.
French Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain have sacked their German head coach Thomas Tuchel, hours after his side beat Strasbourg 4-0. According to Bild, the French champions have fired the former Borussia Dortmund manager after two-and-a-half years in charge at the club.
Thomas Tuchel’s last game was a 4-0 win over Strasbourg on Wednesday. That result took PSG to just one point behind top two Lyon and Lille but it was not enough to save the 47-year-old German’s job.
Paris Saint-Germain had topped their Champions League group, that included Manchester United, and will face face Barcelona in the last 16 in February but will do so under new guidance.
It was only four months ago that Thomas Tuchel had steered the Parisiens to within 90 minutes of a first ever Champions League crown. But Paris Saint-Germain were beaten 1-0 by Bayern Munich in the final.
Tuchel had complained to Sport 1 about a lack of recognition for his work, stating it was ‘sad’ his achievements were underplayed. He made it know in an interview before Wednesday’s game he also claims it was difficult to keep his big name players happy and even said he felt more like ‘a sports politician or sports minister than a coach’ during his first year in Paris.
According to records that might have been the reason behind his sack but he later came out to say they had wrongly mistranslated what he said and that he was ‘making a joke’.
Thomas Tuchel said: “I didn’t say it’s more about politics than sport, nor that I lost the fun of training. This is not true. “It is possible they translated incorrectly.”
“Watch the video interview. I just said that PSG are unique and that it’s a big challenge for me. It’s always been like that. I like this challenge and nothing has changed.”
Paris Saint-Germain will now turn to former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino who is without club now. If things work out well they will sign the coach before the end of today.