Thomas Tuchel vs Hans Watzke

Tuchel vs Watzke

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

12:43 AM

I am little pissed off. Not that Tuchel was my favorite manager of all-time, because he wasn't. I didn't like his tactics, I didn't care for his over use on Gonzalo Castro in the midfield, and I didn't like his lack of conviction in getting victories at home (The unbeaten streak is great, but there are a lot of draws in that run). I just don't like when politics are involved in sport. Chances are if we like everyone that we work with, than something is very wrong. Some of the best people that I've ever worked with are people that I don't really enjoy spending time with, but they certainly get the job done. So then why, when the CEO of Dortmund says that expectations were met with the 3rd place finish, and the title in the German DFB Pokal, not to mention the longest home undefeated streak in club history, does a manager still get let go?

Watzke says it's because he felt that there was a lack of loyalty and trust in the ranks. I ask Watzke then, since when did he feel that way. Was it the bombing of the Dortmund bus? If that's the case, you have to look at that for what it was, and I think the unpredictability of it created a lot of chaos in the club and things may have been said that shouldn't have. Yet concerning the situation… it's tough not to share your true feelings when your life changes in a major way. I don’t have any recollection of a bus carrying athletes being bombed ever in Europe, if not Germany. Marc Bartra didn't know if he was going to survive the attack for the first couple of minutes. There was a lot at stake during that time, and I agree with Tuchel, it would've been a very difficult time to play, 24 hours after the attacks. Then, during the return visit to Monaco, the players were restrained on the bus again before the game began. Their heads clearly weren't in a state where they should have played, and Tuchel said as much. Now he is out of a job.

Let's assume for one minute that the bombing had nothing to do with Tuchel being let go. So then, what next? Was he released because of the team selection? Well that's not very fair, considering that management sold three of his best players during the off-season including the team captain. It's hard to maintain any continuity, no matter how much money Dortmund gave back to Tuchel to replace those players (although he did bring in 9 new faces). There was never any uprising in the locker room, at least to the point where the players would have gone public with their frustrations. It's a tough roster to rotate with 15-20 players all clamoring for places in the first 11. I thought Tuchel did a good job for the most part, especially considering all the injuries that he had to endure.

I think that it came to a genuine dislike for the coach. The board never liked him, and threw out terms like loyalty, trust, and the Dortmund Way to get the supporters to understand their decision for firing him. He never met with other clubs about potential openings, so I don't understand why loyalty is mentioned. He stood behind his players during the attack on the bus, so I don't understand why trust is mentioned. And the Dortmund Way has too always played an attacking style of football, while maintaining the clubs best interests at heart (no more close shaves with bankruptcy being numero Uno) and I thought Tuchel passed those tests with flying colors. It'll be interesting to see how Favre does things differently, but I have to believe, and I certainly will stand by this opinion, that the Dortmund board made the wrong decision here.

Edit: And now P-E Aubameyang is onto PSG. Going to be an interesting summer for the yellow and black. Big decisions at every corner...