Newcastle may yet land Bundesliga boss dubbed ‘better than Klopp’
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With Newcastle United in something of a downward spiral, club owner Mike Ashley must surely be considering making significant changes at St James’ Park this summer with current manager John Carver likely to be the first casualty.
Monday’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool made it five defeats on the spin for the Magpies, though the Toon remain nine points away from the Premier League relegation zone.
Carver has overseen just two top-flight wins as Newcastle manager and with the club still dark horses for relegation, the Toon coach looks unlikely to retain the top job come the summer.
Appointed into the role until the end of the season, the Magpies could return to one of the manager’s previous linked with a move to the club after Alan Pardew’s departure.
One such candidate is Bundesliga boss Thomas Tuchel, who is currently out of work after taking a sabbatical from his last job at Mainz.
It was during his stint with that German top-flight outfit, however, that Tuchel staked his claim as arguably a better manager than Jurgen Klopp.
The soon-to-depart Borussia Dortmund manager was in charge at Mainz from 2001 to 2008, helping the club earn promotion to the top flight in 2004 and keeping them in the Bundesliga for three seasons.
During that time they ended the season in 11th twice but it was a 16th place finish in 2007 that saw them relegated with Klopp staying on for one more season but failing to earn an instant return to the top table of German football.
Replacement Jorn Anderson then came in, helping Mainz gain promotion the following year but it was only when Tuchel took over as a novice 36-year-old in 2010 that things really kicked on.
Now something of a mainstay in the Bundesliga, Tuchel guided Mainz to a Europa League qualification spot on no fewer than three occasions while unearthing youngsters like Lewis Holtby and Andre Schurrle as part of series of canny loan deals.
Having left the club last summer, recent reports had suggested Tuchel was set to take over at struggling giants Hamburg.
But with HSV now announcing the appointment of Bruno Labbadia to the role, the path could be clear for Newcastle to step up their interest in the German coach.
That is, if Dortmund don’t nab him first…
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