PSG fulminates Tüchel and negotiates with Pochettino

Tüchel, during a match with PSG BENOIT TESSIER / Reuters

The Qatari owners of Paris Saint-Germain and their sports director, Leonardo de Araújo, had so little desire to associate with Thomas Tuchel, the coach who led them to the first Champions final in the club's history, last summer, that he they fired hours after thrashing Strasbourg (4-0), this Wednesday.

PSG was third in the French league, one point behind Lille and Lyon, and had qualified first in the group for the knockout stages of the Champions League.

There is no memory of such a sudden dismissal in the major European leagues, announced on December 24, a day like any other in Qatar, where the strategies of the richest club in France are decided, the jewel of the conglomerate that Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al oversees. Thani, brother of the emir and the main person responsible for his country's investments in sports-related companies.

Mauricio Pochettino is at the top of the list to replace the German, according to sources close to the French club.

The newspaper

indicated this Thursday that the Argentine coach has already signed his return to the club where he was a player between 2001 and 2003. If the news is confirmed, the Spanish idol will lead PSG in the second round of the Champions League They will measure it against Barcelona between February 16 (Camp Nou) and March 10 (Parque de los Príncipes).

An anecdotal event could be, according to the Parisian press, the trigger for the dismissal.

In any event, the Qatari owners were upset that Tuchel was resentful during his interview with German television Sport 1 this week.

"We needed to win a match to conquer the Champions League," lamented Tuchel, referring to the final lost to Bayern in Lisbon.

“And we never felt like we convinced people, or that they appreciated our performance.

Sometimes this is sad and bitter.

"Extreme expectations"

They assure in the surroundings of Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of the club, that the decision was made before the broadcast of the interview.

Al Khelaifi acts as executor of the plan that in 2017 led to the signing of Neymar - the most expensive in the history of football - and in 2018 determined the hiring of Thuchel.

By then the technician, who is 47 years old, enjoyed the prestige conferred on great innovators.

His work at Dortmund had established him as one of the most qualified applicants to succeed Guardiola - the two became friends in Munich - as the first leader of attacking football.

This was pointed out by the technical secretariats of the most powerful clubs in Europe and that was understood by PSG until spring 2019, when Tuchel recommended the sale of Neymar arguing that it negatively influenced the development of the other star, Kylian Mbappé.

After sending external emissaries to Spain and England discreetly offering the player, PSG found that the clubs that could pay the 180 million he was asking for were not to Neymar's taste.

Two consecutive Ligue 1 titles were not enough to sweeten the upset.

The inability to give the team's game the longed-for splendor and the necessary continuity, undermined confidence in the German, the focus of all kinds of internal disputes with Leonardo, and every day less authorized in front of the players.

“Expectations here are extreme, in and around the club,” Tuchel complained in Sport 1. “Here we have the feeling that the recognition, especially in Ligue 1, is not the same as that given to Bayern in Germany. , for example, for winning the Bundesliga.

It is always said: 'They have Di Maria, Mbappé and Neymar.

It is normal that they win in Bordeaux, it is not an achievement ”.

Tuchel is the fifth manager to be fired from PSG since the club was acquired by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund in 2011, following Kombouaré, Ancelotti, Laurent Blanc and Unai Emery.