Three Chelsea players that Tuchel wants to join him at Bayern Munich.

After taking over at Bayern Munich, Thomas Tuchel is expected to pursue Chelsea duo Mateo Kovacic and Edouard Mendy.

Former Blues manager Tuchel will look to reunite with midfielder Kovacic and goalkeeper Mendy at the German club, according to Calciomercato.

Tuchel has returned to football six months after being fired by Chelsea, where he led the club to the 2021 Champions League title.

Under Tuchel, Kovacic was a key player, while Mendy’s form dipped after his departure after previously being excellent.

Tuchel is being linked with Chelsea players after replacing Julian Nagelsmann, who was sacked with Bayern second in the league and in the Champions League semi-finals.

He’s also been linked with Blues assistant coach Anthony Barry, who worked closely with Tuchel at Chelsea and has remained an important member of the backroom staff under current manager Graham Potter.

According to reports, Tuchel will look to hire Barry, who is regarded as one of the game’s best young coaches.

Barry, 36, worked as a coach at Wigan before joining Chelsea in the summer of 2020.

He has also coached at the international level, most recently with Portugal after previously working with Belgium and the Republic of Ireland.

Thomas Tuchel, the former coach of Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, is known for his tactical brilliance and willingness to frequently overhaul his team.

However, his career has also been marked by several dismissals, including a contentious departure from Borussia Dortmund in 2017, a bitter split from PSG in December 2020, and a tumultuous exit from Chelsea in September. Despite these setbacks, Tuchel has demonstrated his ability to bounce back and lead subsequent top-flight clubs.

“Tuchel is not interested in marketing, in his image. He is interested by his work, he just wants to be judged by his work and only that,” said Daniel Meuren, who wrote a biography on the German coach.

On the field, the verdict so far is unanimous – every club that Tuchel has handled has obtained results and play attractive football. He led Chelsea to Champions League glory, won two French titles with PSG and lifted the German Cup with Dortmund. At once charismatic and prickly, Tuchel, by his own admission, can be a challenging personality.

“I wasn’t easy to deal with as a player,” he admitted in a 2009 interview.

A knee injury cut short Tuchel’s playing career as a defender at third-division Ulm in 1998 and he turned his hand to coaching.