COACHING CLINIC

‘BARCELONA HAS WOKEN UP LARGE SECTIONS OF AN IRRITATED FAN BASE’

KIERAN TRIPPIER MAY GO

Kieran Trippier’s future is up in the air. The Englishman admitted in an interview with the Daily Mail that he’d love to return to the Premier League. The right-back pressed to leave La Liga last summer and return to England amid Manchester United’s interest in his services. Atletico were keen to keep him, however, and the deal didn’t happen in the end. Los Rojiblancos wanted his release clause to be triggered, which would have meant an o er of €40m.

THE REBUILD MAY TAKE LONGER THAN EXPECTED

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has made it clear that Xavi Hernandez will need time to turn things around. It has been a tricky start to life back at Camp Nou for Xavi, who has endured a di cult start to his career as the new Barcelona head coach. Laporta reminded fans that the current issues at Camp Nou, both on and o the field, are not going to be fixed overnight.

THE UGLY

Xavi Hernandez’s return to Barcelona was greeted with the expected fanfare of one of La Blaugrana’s favourite sons after Ronald Koeman’s exit debacle. Defeat to Rayo was the final straw for Koeman, with Barcelona finally removing the unpopular Dutchman to pave the way for their long-term succession plan with Xavi. Despite his all-star career for both club and country, his coaching CV in Qatar opened up fierce speculation over his suitability to coach at this level, regardless of his on-field legacy in Catalonia. A mixed start in La Liga deepened those concerns, but the biggest storm at Camp Nou came from their eventual and embarrassing group stage exit from the Champions League for the first time since 2001. One point from two games in Europe under Xavi meant the five times winners su ered an inglorious departure from the biggest stage. Xavi’s frankness over their thrashing by Bayern Munich encapsulated both the malaise around the transition from Koeman, but also the deeper realisation that his former club no longer have a place at the top table. His message on the reality of a Europa League place for Barcelona in 2022 has woken up large sections of an irritated fan base on the direction the club is heading, at least in the short term, with his brief of reversing their slide looking ever more daunting. The brightest array of La Masia talent in a decade will be the basis for Xavi’s new Barcelona, but a lack of investment in the transfer market could ultimately prove costly in the months ahead. Big decisions will be coming thick and fast for Xavi in 2022, with a significant part of his return based around his profile being big enough to make the di cult calls, but the end of the road could be fast approaching for some of his most decorated former teammates.

FAR LEFT: Barcelona's Busquets react after losing the UEFA Champions League Group E soccer match between FC Bayern Muenchen a nd FC Barcelona

ABOVE: FC Barcelona's head coach Xavi Hernandez

LEFT: Memphis Depay reacts during a 2021 Champions League match

TOP (OPPOSITE PAGE): Real Betis' head coach Manuel Pellegrini attends a Europa League press conference

BOTTOM (OPPOSITE PAGE): Alaves' players celebrate

GOING UP

With Rayo looking to at least crash the Europa League party, Manuel Pellegrini is aiming to take advantage of Barcelona’s inconsistency with a Champions League push for Real Betis. Andalucian rivals Sevilla have edged them out in the race for Europe for the best part of a decade, but Los Verdiblancos are quietly confident of staying in the race in 2022.

GOING DOWN

Quique Sanchez Flores’ third spell at Getafe appears to have sparked them into life in the final weeks of 2021 with the fans; favourite steadying the ship in the south of Madrid. Basque side Alaves are now looking over their shoulders as their own form puts them in real danger of being sucked into a relegation dog fight.

TOP: Atletico Madrid's striker Luis Suarez (L) and his wife Sofia Balbi (R) attend the 15th As Sports Awards handout ceremony in Madrid, Spain

ABOVE: Real Madrid's Belgian Eden Hazard during a Spanish LaLiga soccer match between Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano

LEFT: FC Barcelona players celebrate their 3-2 lead during the Spanish LaLiga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Elche CF

REAL MADRID VERSUS PARIS ST. GERMAIN

Paris will face Real Madrid in the knockout stage of a European competition for the 4th time. PSG have qualified twice (1992/93 and 1993/94), while the Madrilean side eliminated the Parisians in the 2017/18 Champions League.

PAPU GOMEZ LOOKING FOR AN EXIT

Papu Gomez has admitted that he’d consider a move to Napoli in the future. The Argentine joined Sevilla from Atalanta last January after falling out with coach Gian Pero Gasperini, and has quickly settled amidst the large Argentine contingent at the club. But the 33-year-old, who revealed he intends on playing for several more years, yet didn’t discard a return to Italy at some point later in his career.

BUNDESLIGA

german coaching clinic

THREE OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE’S BIGGEST CLUBS HAVE TURNED TO GERMAN COACHES TO DELIVER THE SUCCESS THEY CRAVE. MICHELLE OSEI BONSU EXAMINES WHY JURGEN KLOPP, THOMAS TUCHEL AND RALF RANGNICK ARE SO IN-DEMAND…

I i t is often said that one person’s rubbish is another’s treasure, and this hackneyed yet accurate statement certainly rings true in the case of Thomas Tuchel. Despite winning a total of six trophies, including a domestic quadruple in his second term with Paris Saint-Germain, he was still sacked by Les Parisiens. Indeed, that’s in spite of racking up an impressive 75.6 percent winning record [the best for PSG in their Ligue 1 history as well as, notably, guiding the cash-rich outfit to their first ever Champions League final appearance].

With that in mind, it wasn’t really a shock that he didn’t have to wait too long for his next job.

Indeed, Tuchel was given his PSG marching papers on December 24 and a month later –

January 26 – he became the first German to be appointed Chelsea coach.

Tuchel replaced club icon Frank Lampard, who had been sacked to the consternation of a significant number of Blues fans who remembered the goalscoring midfielder and appreciated his commitment to blooding the club’s talented youngsters. Also possibly telling was that Tuchel had previously said he wouldn’t take over a club mid-season, so what changed his mind? Surely not the £7m-a-year salary on o er. Chelsea only turned to Tuchel when Ralf

Rangnick rejected the o er of taking over as interim coach until the end of the season, Tuchel instead signing for 18 months.

Chelsea fans couldn’t be sure what to expect when Tuchel was appointed in January 2021, and the coach himself had a mountain to climb to win over the players and fans who might have raised an eyebrow at the arrival of someone unceremoniously dumped by a Champions

League rival just a few weeks earlier.

But under Tuchel, Chelsea finally sprang to life. They reached the FA Cup Final but, most impressively, claimed the club’s second

Champions League by beating Manchester City.

It was a feat that made Tuchel a record-breaker, the first coach to reach consecutive Champions

League finals with di erent clubs, after his PSG were beaten by Bayern Munich in 2019-20. That victory triggered a contract extension until 2024.

A history-maker in one way, in another Tuchel was following a path already trodden by his compatriot, Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp, who claimed the status of the first German coach to win the Champions League with a Premier

League side in 2019, the Reds’ sixth European

THOMAS TUCHEL WAS SACKED BY PARIS SAINTGERMAIN ON DECEMBER 24 AND A MONTH LATER BECAME THE FIRST GERMAN TO BE APPOINTED CHELSEA COACH’

ABOVE: Thomas Tuchel had been at Chelsea only a few months when he delivered the Blues’ second Champions League

RIGHT: Chelsea's manager Thomas Tuchel reacts during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Chelsea FC

Cup triumph. Tuchel even did it by beating another English side, much as Klopp’s Liverpool did against Tottenham. Liverpool had finished as runners-up to Real Madrid in 2018 but Klopp needed only 12 months to cement his iconic status among the Anfield faithful with the vaunted sixth European Cup and then, in the pandemic-hit 2019-20 season, ended the club’s 30-year wait for the title, their first of the Premier League era. Since Klopp arrived on Merseyside in 2015, Liverpool have enjoyed a period of success not seen since the glory days of the 1970s and ‘80s. Under Klopp, Liverpool have won the Premier League, the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. They have also reached the finals of the 2015-16 Europa League and 2017-18 Champions League. It’s a glittering run that shows little sign of abating. Like Tuchel, Klopp took over Liverpool after the season had already started. Having left Borussia Dortmund at the end of a di cult 2014-15 campaign, Klopp was drafted in to replace Brendan Rodgers in October 2015 after he was sacked following a string of poor results. The similarities between Klopp and Tuchel don’t stop with when they took over their teams or the major trophies they have won for their English employers. Both were defenders in their playing days – Klopp started as a striker but converted early in his career. Both had stints as coach of Mainz and Dortmund; Tuchel was Mainz boss between 2009 and 2014 and Dortmund coach between 2015 – succeeding Klopp – and 2017. Klopp, meanwhile, spent 14 combined years at Mainz and Dortmund, overseeing die Nullfünfer between 2001 and 2008 and die Schwarzgelben from 2008 to 2015. It was perhaps inevitable they would both turn up in the Premier League at the same time. The third of the German trio in the English top flight is the newest arrival and the one who has the shortest-term future. Rangnick, a year after saying no to Chelsea, accepted Manchester United’s approach to take over on an interim basis before a two-year consultancy, but could still stay on as coach. And he is a pivotal figure in Tuchel’s career too.

ABOVE: Tuchel and Jurgen Klopp have enjoyed similar careers thus far

BELOW: Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel (R) talks to his player Ruben Loftus-Cheek

TOP RIGHT (TOP TO BOTTOM): Florian Kohfeldt Marco Rose Christian Streich

‘UNDER TUCHEL, CHELSEA FINALLY SPRANG TO LIFE’ 5 GERMAN COACHES TO WATCH

A few years ago, Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Ralf Rangnick were barely known outside the Bundesliga – now they’re household names across Europe. Here are five more coaches destined for continental success…

JULIAN NAGLESMANN Julian Nagelsmann first made major waves in 2015, when he was appointed head coach of Ho enheim. At 28, he was younger than many of his own players – and was the youngest coach in the history of the Bundesliga. It’s been all upwards since then. Nagelsmann spent three years at Ho enheim before moving to RB Leipzig, steering the team to their first ever participation in the Champions League. Bayern Munich identified him as the successor to Hansi Flick in 2021 and a Champions League win with die Roten would solidify Nagelsmann on the level of his compatriots in England.

FLORIAN KOHFELDT Wolfsburg’s newest boss, Florian Kohfeldt took over after Mark van Bommel was sacked in October and has been tasked with helping the club find their way again. It’s not all that long ago that Wolfsburg were in the Champions League under Oliver Glasner, at one point keeping pace with Bayern. Things have gone badly awry since then and for Kohfeldt, this is a chance to prove himself after he was dismissed by Werder Bremen at the end of the 2020-21 season.

MARCO ROSE Like Tuchel and Nagelsmann, Marco Rose is part of the German coaching school. Previously in charge of Borussia Monchengladbach, he won acclaim for taking the team to the Champions League and that success was enough to convince Borussia Dortmund he is the man to turn the club from perpetual runners-up into champions. Overcoming Dortmund’s stage fright is first on the agenda as they’ll need to beat Bayern in Der Klassiker if they are to finish above the Bavarians in the table.

CHRISTIAN STREICH Christian Streich is the longest-serving coach in the Bundesliga, taking over his post at Freiburg in December 2011. He’s seen it all in that decade – European football, relegation, promotion as 2.Bundesliga champions and, at one point, third place in the Bundesliga. All eyes will be on Streich to see how he handles the second half of what, thus far, has been an impressive 2021-22 season.

OLIVER GLASNER It was Oliver Glasner who took Wolfsburg to fourth and the Champions League last season. Now in charge at Eintracht Frankfurt, he’s relishing a new challenge but it won’t be easy. Yet, given how Glasner was able to transform Wolfsburg from has-beens to a Champions League team, supporters of die Adler should have faith in the man on the bench, as great things surely lie ahead in his career.