Speaking to kicker, Bayern Munich honorary president Uli Hoeneß has confirmed that he stands by the comments he made about Thomas Tuchel and his lack of talent development.
Before Bayern’s game against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, Hoeneß had said during a panel with Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung: “He doesn’t think he can improve a Davies, Pavlovic or Musiala. If it doesn’t work out, you should buy another one. I mean, you should work hard on them and give them self-confidence.”
Speaking to Sky ahead of the Bayern game on Saturday, Tuchel replied: “This is so miles away from reality that there is certainly no … I don’t even know how to answer it. I am injured in my trainer’s honor. If we have proven something in the coaching team in the last 15 years: that we always give young players, especially from the academy, a place in training and on the pitch. I can’t understand the three examples of this wrong content. I have very little understanding for this, I find that absolutely unfounded. I would not have reacted at all if it had not come from Uli. Because it’s from our boss that it’s four days before our game against Madrid, it gets a different grade. It scratches my deepest understanding as a coach.”
Since then, Hoeneß has doubled down on his criticism of Tuchel and believes he would be “wildly determined to make my opinion clearer again”.
The comment by Hoeneß has created unnecessary noise around the Bayern dressing room ahead of one of their biggest games of the season. With Tuchel also leaving the club at the end of the season, these types of comments could have waited until he had left the club and the new manager had been hired.
It was also known that whoever does replace Tuchel will have to deal with the likes of Hoeneß but these types of stunts are not necessarily helpful when it comes to attracting coaches to the club.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
