After a kick up the backside for Julian Nagelsmann came one for Leroy Sane. The wunderkind of German management was sacked by Bayern Munich, the first significant setback in his precocious coaching career, in part because of the availability of Thomas Tuchel. Bayern had spent £21.7m to get Nagelsmann; it only took a few days of thinking after defeat to Bayer Leverkusen to decide to dispense with him.
And so enter Tuchel, caught on camera in his first training session with his new charges aiming a kick at Sane – playfully, rather than violently, it should be stressed – but charged with finding a way to galvanise Bayern. Tuchel’s time at Chelsea suggests he could be the ultimate short-term manager, taking a team in ninth in mid-season, having the clarity of thought and coaching prowess to reconfigure them and becoming champions of Europe four months later. Now the short term has got even shorter: Tuchel could be a treble winner barely 10 weeks after getting the Bayern job. Nagelsmann was dismissed because of one game in particular, and that will be Tuchel’s bow.
