Manchester United fear Thomas Tuchel will stay at Chelsea despite uncertainty over his future

Thomas Tuchel has given no indication to Manchester United that he will be available this summer – leaving the Old Trafford club to push ahead with their pursuit of Mauricio Pochettino and Erik ten Hag.

The Chelsea manager’s future has become the subject of intense speculation after Roman Abramovich was hit by UK Government sanctions last week.

United’s hierarchy are long-term admirers of the German and were monitoring him closely before he took over at Stamford Bridge last year.

But they have been given no encouragement that he is ready to quit Chelsea – even in the wake of such a turbulent time for the European champions.

Pochettino and Ten Hag remain at the top of United’s wanted list this summer when they will appoint a permanent successor to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

It would take a clear signal from Tuchel that he would be interested in being added to that list of candidates to make them change direction now.

The former Paris St-Germain coach has repeatedly insisted he is happy at Chelsea – but recently gave the first hint that his long-term future was less certain.

“There’s no doubt I’ll stay until the end of the season, absolutely,” he said after the 1-0 win against Newcastle, which tightened Chelsea’s grip on third place. “We just have to wait and we still have to go day by day because everything can change.

“But as you know the situation is clear, the club’s for sale, and hopefully it will go through to sort things out and give us a perspective.

“It’s a massive club, massive club with huge tradition. And there are hundreds of people who I’m pretty sure worry more than our players and staff, me included.”

Tuchel has enjoyed spectacular success in just 14 months at Chelsea – winning the Champions League, European Super Cup and Club World Cup in that time.

He has also reached two more finals – the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup – while he is on course to deliver Champions League qualification for the second successive season.

That has seen his reputation enhance across Europe, with a host of clubs watching his situation as events unfold regarding Abramovich and the sale of the club.

Tuchel is understood to be settled in England and has no desire to uproot his family.

He also has a strong working relationship with Chelsea’s hierarchy, in particular director Marina Granovskaia and technical advisor Petr Cech.

While the future of that pair is also in doubt once the sale goes through, it is not believed it would automatically prompt Tuchel to reconsider his position if they departed.

Getty Images

Any new owner is likely to want to keep Tuchel on to maintain stability, while he has also taken on a statesmanlike role during the recent upheaval.

Chelsea, meanwhile, are still trying to alter the terms of the special licence that grants them to continue playing, despite Abramovich’s sanctions.

The current terms only allow a maximum spend of £20,000 to travel to matches.

This week’s trip to Lille had already been paid for before last week’s sanctions – but it places doubts over their continued involvement in the Champions League if they progress to the quarter-finals.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have already extended the budget for home games from £500,000 to £900,000.

They know they have time to wait until after Wednesday’s game in Lille to adjust the away budget – but the insistence within the club is that £20,000 will struggle to cover domestic fixtures, let alone foreign travel.

They want it to be adjusted in time for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final at Middlesbrough.

Ahead of Lille, Tuchel said: “My last information is we are getting a plane. So we can go by plane and come back by plane. If not, we’ll go by train. If not, we’ll go by bus. If not, I’ll drive a seven-seater. Honestly, I will do it. You can mark my words, I will do it to arrive there.

“If you asked me 20 years ago, 30 years ago, if I would join a Champions League match at the side-line and what I was willing to do, I’d say, ‘Okay, where do I have to be and when?’ Why should this change?”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in