I had completely forgotten about this, but I just saw a tweet that reminded me about a chapter in Marti Perarnau’s book Pep Guardiola: The Evolution, about the ending of his time at Bayern, that is basically about how Pep prepared tactically for a final of the German Cup against... Tuchel’s Dortmund*.
There is another chapter about how Pep and Tuchel were good friends and mutual admirers and talked about football constantly in Germany.
I strongly recommend it to everybody
*which ended 0-0 and Bayern won in penalty shootouts
Their first "private" meeting was together with Reschke at a Munich restaurant. Tuchel lived in Munich then - could be that he still has his house there even if his family moved with him to Paris and now to London. It was during Tuchel's sabbatical after coaching Mainz and before he took over in Dortmund.
About that meeting Reschke told in April to German TV channel sport 1 (I try to make an easy translation of an article on the homepage correcting in parts Google translate)
I had an appointment with Thomas that evening," says Reschke, who worked as technical director at FC Bayern in 2015: "In the afternoon I went to Pep's office and said: 'Look out, Pep, I'll meet Thomas Tuchel this evening . Wouldn't you like to join us? '"
Guardiola trained the German record champions at the time - Tuchel took a sabbatical year and soon after became coach of Borussia Dortmund. Guardiola agreed and the legendary evening took its course.
"What was really unbelievable that evening: They talked about games that were five, six, seven years ago and where Thomas really set up the formation that Barcelona played with in the first half with wine glasses and pepper shakers," recalls Reschke: "Then he said to Pep: So and so you played. The wine glasses and pepper shakers were really pushed back and forth. I sat there and thought to myself: 'That can't be true.'"
At that time, Reschke had "vague memories" of some games. But he didn't know the details. "That was insane," he says when he remembers. Then there was a second meeting - in the Brenners, a Munich restaurant. The German trainer Peter Hermann was also there at the time, Reschke recalls:
"Afterwards Peter said to me: 'Michael, that can't be true. I always thought that I knew a lot about football, but what kind of knowledge they both have and how they talk about the games is crazy.' That was something special, Pep's point of view. But also to experience Tuchel. Those were two grenade evenings. "
The 63-year-old even remembers the exact seat in the new SPORT1 podcast Meine Bayern Woche. This was right at the back of the corner so that the group could be a little to themselves: "Pep has always loved corner seats. We always sat in corners and there was nothing in the back. So we could see the whole place."
Over the years, a friendly relationship has developed between Guardiola and Tuchel. In the Premier League, Guardiola (Manchester City) and Tuchel (Chelsea FC) are currently even competing against each other.
Reschke even believes that Tuchel might be Guardiola's successor at Bayern in the future: "There are hardly two opinions that Thomas could have been an interesting coach for Bayern or will one day again."
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Tuchel was a big fan favourite for the Bayern job in 2018. I do not know if Bayern was just not fast enough or if they weren't really convinced of him because of his time at Dortmund where he had some problems with the club officials, some players and some press (I guess as a coach you need to learn, too) - but then PSG needed a coach during the season.
