Thomas Tuchel had a lot to get through in today’s press conference, with international break injuries, Timo Werner’s stinking misses, plus the usual team news and a Manager of the Month award for the big man.
The fact that there was a to get through of course didn’t stop the boring transfer news questions. To be fair there were some big movements in the market this week, with Sergio Aguero announcing he’s leaving Man City, and Erling Haaland’s entourage beginning their grand circuit of Europe to find his next club.
Tuchel went with the bog-standard response in these situations: praise the player but remind everyone they’re not yours to talk about.
“There is big news around [Haaland] and his agent. It seems like they are creating a race for the player and I will fully accept this a player for Borussia Dortmund, a promising player of course.
“He isn’t our player and is not in our squad.”
Tuchel said in quotes recorded by the BBC. On Aguero, it was pretty much the same message:
“There is no words needed for me about the achievements of this guy, he is a world-class player.
“We have three competitions in which we are in with Manchester City so I will not speak about their player.”
Then, thankfully, the conversation was able to move on to more interesting topics. There will be plenty of time for transfer chat all summer – right now we’re in the mix in three competitions, and we’ve just had an international break. Forgive us if we’d rather hear the coach asked about the actual game.
