Pochettino as successor ?: Paris Saint-Germain fires Thomas Tuchel

Thursday December 24th 2020

Pochettino as a successor?
Paris Saint-Germain fires Thomas Tuchel

Christmas hammer: The French soccer champions fire the German coach Thomas Tuchel, according to media reports. PSG are currently third in Ligue 1. The decision comes one day after an interview by Tuchel, which the club is said to have displeased.

The French football champions Paris Saint-Germain sacked coach Thomas Tuchel. Media reports from the French specialist magazine "L'Équipe", the radio station RMC, the "Bild" newspaper and the TV station Sky confirm this unanimously. There was initially no confirmation from the club on Christmas Eve unable to reach an opinion.

At the end of PSG's 4-0 success over Strasbourg on Wednesday evening in the Parc des Princes, the Paris bosses decided to fire the coach. Tuchel was informed of the decision overnight. His contract with the Parisians ran until June 2021. The Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, who successfully coached Tottenham Hotspur from 2014 to 2019, is being traded as his successor, according to information from the broadcaster RMC Sport and the newspaper "Le Parisien". The 48-year-old once played for PSG.

"Tuchel, it's over", headlines "L'Équipe". The decision on Christmas Eve is a tremendous tremor in the French top club and is quite unexpected: In the league, the current champions and cup winners are in third place and only one point behind the top duo OSC Lille and Olympique Lyon. "I'm there every day to support my team and to take my responsibility seriously," Tuchel said after the Strasbourg victory. In the Champions League, Tuchel's team with the superstars Neymar and Kylian Mbappé reached the round of 16 as group winners (ahead of RB Leipzig and Manchester United) and met FC Barcelona there in February and March.

Tuchel's position at PSG was weakened by the 1-0 defeat in Ligue 1 against Lyon in mid-December. His team also only managed a draw four days ago against the then front runner Lille. The goal of the owners from Qatar is to win the Champions League anyway.

The decision of the PSG bosses comes one day after a Sport 1 interview with Tuchel was broadcast. Some passages from it are said to have displeased the club, even if, according to "L'Équipe", the club assured internally that it had made the decision beforehand. Tuchel said in the interview that he missed recognition for his work at PSG. "It was missing a game to win the Champions League. And we never had the feeling that we had convinced people now and that they recognize our performance. It sometimes makes you a little sad or angry," he said Coach: "There is definitely extreme expectation here in the club and in the environment. You get the feeling that the appreciation for it – especially in the league – is not there as it is, for example, at Bayern Munich is a bit missing. "

Tuchel trained in Mainz from 2009 to 2014. In 2015, the coach took over Borussia Dortmund for two years before moving to Paris in 2018. Last season Tuchel reached the Champions League final with PSG and lost there just 0: 1 against the triple winner Bayern Munich. Under Tuchel's leadership, PSG had set the first 14 league games in 2018 and thus set a new start record in Ligue 1. The German coach won the championship in his two seasons with Paris, and he took the trophy in 2020.