Thomas Tuchel thinks that he would still be Dortmund manager if not for the bomb attack last season

Dortmund have had a rocky season thus far for a few reasons. One of the main reasons behind their struggles has been due to managerial change and ineffectiveness.

Peter Bosz started the season, but was eventually sacked after a terrible losing streak. Peter Stöger has since steadied the ship a bit, but hasn’t reached the heights that Dortmund are capable of.

Thomas Tuchel once seemed destined to coach BVB for a long time. Then last season happened, and he was forced out at the end of the campaign. Tuchel has been speaking recently in court about last April’s bombing of the Dortmund team bus, which he thinks was related to his eventual sacking. Bild has the relevant quotes, which are translated below.

Tuchel was speaking as a witness at the trial against of the defendant known as “Sergej W,” who is accused of setting off an explosive device as the Dortmund bus was making its way to a Champions League game against Monaco on April 11, 2017.

When asked by public prosecutor Carsten Dombert whether he would have remained Borussia’s coach beyond the summer of 2017 Tuchel, who had been under contract until 2018, said: “I’d like to think so.”

“Watzke has spoken in public of the dissent,” Tuchel said of the direct aftermath of the attack. “It was about the handling and the consequences of the attack.”

The match against Monaco at the Westfalenstadion was initially postponed, before being rescheduled for April 12, the following day. Dortmund officials including Watzke, their Monaco counterparts and UEFA made the decision.

Tuchel said: “The biggest dissent, I believe, is that I sat in the bus, and he didn’t.”

While the 44-year-old said he “felt prepared to coach the match,” when the team met at the training ground the next morning he realised that the squad was “in a state where they were unable to play.”

When asked whether the attack had influenced Dortmund’s performance, Tuchel said: “I am convinced of it.

”The magnitude and how much luck we had, the extent of it all. We only felt that the next morning.”

It’s impossible to predict how things would have turned out had the attack not happened, but it’s tough to criticize Tuchel here. One group who does deserve criticism is UEFA. It is abhorrent that BVB were forced to play the Champions League match against Monaco the next day after the attack. These players almost died, and UEFA still forced them to play one of the biggest games of their lives less than 24 hours after such a traumatizing incident.

But they were made to take the field, and the rest is history. Dortmund were eventually knocked out by Monaco, and Tuchel was eventually relieved of his duties just a few weeks later.

It is pretty clear that he was forced out because of disagreements with Hans-Joachim Watzke. So maybe those would have surfaced at some point anyway.

Who knows where Tuchel will end up in his next coaching job. He has been linked to various clubs around Europe, but seemed set on taking this season off.

Dortmund are still in the process of moving on, but the way TT’s time in Dortmund ended is certainly a shame.