Dembele sorry to see Tuchel leave

Ousmane Dembele has spoken of his disappointment at the departure of Thomas Tuchel from Borussia Dortmund.

Dembele was brought to Dortmund by Tuchel in July from Stade Rennais and flourished under the 43-year-old’s leadership, scoring 10 goals in his debut campaign.

That relationship ended last month, though, when Tuchel was removed from his position as head coach – to be replaced by Peter Bosz.

Tuchel left his role at Signal Iduna Park after two seasons in charge, the latter seeing Dortmund lift the DFB-Pokal and qualify for the Champions League, and Dembele was sad to see him go.

“I’m disappointed because he is a coach who trusted me a lot,” the forward told Sky Sports Deutschland.

“He was always there for me and brought me on a lot.

“He is a very good coach with whom I had a great time. But that’s how football is, our management decided like this.”

Tuchel’s relationship with Dortmund appeared to break down after their rearranged Champions League quarter-final with Monaco, which was rescheduled less than 24 hours after BVB’s team bus was subjected to a bomb attack.

The coach voiced his displeasure at the situation – much to the ire of CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke – and Dembele claimed the players were very much on Tuchel’s side.

“The atmosphere inside the bus was frightening,” he added. “The next morning was a catastrophe. And then we had to play football. 

“That was something that wasn’t on our mind. Nobody was capable of playing that match. UEFA had scheduling problems but no one of us was in a state of going out to play. 

“Many of us did not want to play, in fact nearly all of us. But we couldn’t do anything about it. We were forced to play. The coach was completely with us, he also did not have the head for a football match. 

“We were united in our view but that’s the way it is.”