Thomas Tuchel has admitted he would find it incredibly hard to walk back on the decision to leave Bayern Munich at the end of the season.
It was confirmed earlier this year that Tuchel would step down this summer, but Bayern have since been publicly rejected by their top three targets – Xabi Alonso, Julian Nagelsmann and Ralf Rangnick – sparking suggestions they could try to retain Tuchel beyond this season.
Tuchel himself even hinted at the idea of remaining by admitting “everything is possible” but, after a wave of speculation that he could stay with Bayern, he has moved to shut the door once again.
“At the moment, there is nothing else to stay from my side,” Tuchel began. “The club took the initiative at the end of February and we reached an agreement.
“Since then, the club has been searching intensively, and I guess they were doing that before our conversation and again after. That makes it hard to then say, ‘Ah, let’s do it again with you’. Nah. From my side, that’s clear at the moment.”
Club president Herbert Hainer stressed that “the agreement is in place” on Saturday, after sporting director Christoph Freund confirmed there was “no chance” of keeping Tuchel beyond this current year.
Bayern are not interested in finding an interim manager and hope to find somebody to replace Tuchel and lead the team for the foreseeable future.
“I said something yesterday in the mixed zone that we are looking for a coach who will work with us in the medium and long term,” director Max Eberl told BILD . “That’s what I said yesterday: That’s a premise that we have and we’ll continue to pursue it for now.”
Eberl recently met with former Germany boss Joachim Low, who has been touted as a possible candidate for Bayern, but the director quickly urged conspiracy theorists to remember Low’s public admission that he is not interested in the job.
“I think it’s completely normal when you go to the stadium and see the ex-national coach with his analyst, that you then say hello and ask how he is and whether everything is okay,” Eberl explained. “I said he looked good. Then I sat down in my seat. There was no conversation about the coaching position.
“He said something very clearly about it and so I won’t deal with it anymore. Anyone who says they don’t want to coach Bayern Munich doesn’t want to coach Bayern Munich. So we will find a coach who wants to coach Bayern Munich.”
