- 17 Dec 2024
Barcelona star labels Chelsea manager Tuchel as favourite coach
Stefan Bienkowski
- Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
- 5 min read
Barcelona star Ousmane Dembele has labelled Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel as his “favourite coach” and believes he would have stayed at Borussia Dortmund, had the German coach remained in charge of the Bundesliga side.
Following a successful spell at Rennes, Dembele then spent a season at Dortmund under Tuchel’s guidance, before being signed by Barcelona for a reported fee of at least €105 million, plus add ons.
During his time in Germany, Dembele bagged an impressive 10 goals and 22 assists in just 50 games for Dortmund by primarily playing as a wide player on the right wing.
However, since making the move to Spain, the France international has struggled to live up to his remarkable transfer fee and has managed just 29 goals and 20 assists in 111 games for the Catalan side.
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Now, in retrospect, the forward is happy to admit that he may have never made the move to Spain if Tuchel had remained in charge of Dortmund and hadn’t instead been sacked three months prior to Dembele’s own departure.
“If he had stayed, it would have been very difficult to leave Dortmund,” said Dembele in an interview with BeIN Sports. “I would probably not have done it.
“Thomas Tuchel is my favourite coach. Under him I played more on the right side before I was transferred to ten or in the middle.”
Could Dembele join Tuchel at Chelsea?
While the French forward has yet to be linked with a move to Chelsea this summer, such a move would perhaps make sense for all parties involved.
Barcelona will undoubtedly be looking to offload a number of squad players in the coming transfer window, as they try to reconsolidate their financial footing after the pandemic and Dembele may be one of the club’s most sellable assets.
As well as that, Chelsea have been linked with a number of wide players ahead of the summer transfer period, with Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho reportedly sitting top of their shopping list.
If the London club can’t convince Sancho to make the move to Stamford Bridge, perhaps a move for Dembele would prove more fruitful. Especially if the French star and Chelsea’s current manager already know how to work together so well.
