Thomas Tuchel, Bayern Munich board happy with a two-and-a-half year contract

It all seemed to have happened in the blink of an eye towards the end of last week, but Julian Nagelsmann was fired as Bayern Munich manager and Thomas Tuchel has been hired as his replacement.

There were a handful of reasons that Bayern’s front office gave for rationalizing why the felt the need to part ways with Nagelsmann, but there’s always been the understanding that Tuchel was ready and available for work after Chelsea let him go back in September after a Champions League loss to Dinamo Zagreb.

To work backwards just a little bit, when Nagelsmann officially agreed to join Bayern from RB Leipzig, he signed a five-year deal at 33 years of age for what was a record-breaking managerial transfer fee of €25 million. He came along with fellow Leipzig players Dayot Upamecano and Marcel Sabitzer, the latter of which has been loaned out to Manchester United in the Premier League. He won the Bundesliga title las season as well as the DFL-Supercup in both 2021 and 2022, but the club’s board and front office they were getting enough out of the manager they felt would represent the future of the club.

Unlike Nagelsmann, Tuchel has agreed to a two-and-a-half year deal to be Bayern’s manager. Per Sky Sport’s Florian Plettenberg, the former Mainz, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, and Chelsea manager were earn roughly €12 million per year at Bayern, which is still a considerable amount. Plettenberg also reports that there wasn’t a discussion about a longer contract for Tuchel at Bayern, and that all parties are happy with the two and a half year deal that was agreed upon. At Chelsea, he was set to remain manager through 2024, but his standing there derailed rather rapidly and they felt the need to let him go in the fall.

Within days, Tottenham Hotspur had also fired Antonio Conte, which was a move that was perhaps a lot more foreseeable than Nagelsmann’s departure from Bayern was. Naturally, Nagelsmann’s name has already been heavily linked with the Spurs job, but there’s also the recommended inclination that he wait for the summer to take a new job after just getting sacked by Bayern.

Per Plettenberg, Tottenham had also inquired about Tuchel, but there were never any concrete offers made to the Champions League winner with Chelsea. Thus, there weren’t ever any concrete talks between the North London club and Tuchel, and Bayern was where he ultimately landed.