Thomas Tuchel recalls old Sir Dave Brailsford conversation that Man United fans will love

An old conversation between Thomas Tuchel and Sir Dave Brailsford has resurfaced while the Manchester United-linked man was manager of Chelsea.

Thomas Tuchel is being linked as one of the front runners for the Manchester United job this summer should Erik ten Hag be relieved of his duties as club manager.

After a torrid season that has seen the club finish eighth in the Premier League table and out of the Champions League by Christmas, the side won the 2024 FA Cup, which has given Ten Hag extra credit.

Read More: Man United coach explains the real reason Jadon Sancho didn’t apologise to Erik ten Hag

An old conversation that Tuchel had with Sir Dave Brailsford, chief of sport at INEOS, has now resurfaced. The German manager, who was at Chelsea when he explained the exchange in 2021, detailed the type of mentality that Brailsford has shown—something that Tuchel greatly valued.

“I spoke many, years ago here in London to the leader of the cycling team of Sky, Sir Dave Brailsford, who won the Tour de France a few times,” Tuchel told reporters. “And he was very, very concerned about not wanting to enter a state of mind where you fear the loss of a record more than the hunger and adventure of winning the next race.”

These quotes came from a time when Tuchel had just joined Chelsea as their new manager and was yet to lose a fixture, having won or drawn the 13 games he had taken charge of so far.

“I don’t want to enter this, either, so the refocus is always part of the process. If we look too much at what we have achieved, that ‘we protect this, what we have’… this is already in the past. If it’s 13, 14, 15 or whatever we can make it, it doesn’t matter.

“It matters because it’s natural that it sometimes affects you, and maybe you step back and want to protect it, and you maybe enter the next game thinking, ‘Let’s not ruin this’.

“But I always want us to be brave and to refocus, to go for the next win and not to avoid the loss that kills our record.

“The record is already history. The next game with Sheffield United is one game, and this is the most important. What do we have to do in the first minute, the fifth minute, and the 90th minute? What are we good at? What do we demand of ourselves?

“Not in general that we demand that we win. No, we demand that in the first minute, we start like this and play like this, and we have this kind of intensity and this kind of attitude and this kind of team spirit and from there on, we go.

“And then I demand from myself and the team and everybody the maximum and then we will see, because if we have all this then it is possible to have big records.

“But I hope we don’t enter situations where we are more afraid of losing the record than of winning the next game.”

Continuing, he explained that the point of what he was saying is that his team, Chelsea, at the time, competed for the top spots regardless of whether they were maintaining an unbeaten streak or not—something United fans will certainly like to hear. Football is not about unbeaten records; it’s about winning games.

“The point is that I don’t place it in terms of importance. The most important is that we compete for every competition we play in and or that is what it is about at Chelsea.

“We play for the top space. We play Champions League, we play to win every game, and if we play the Cup, we play to win every game and compete for the maximum.

“The challenge, first of all, the first step is to admit that we challenge for every competition that we play in because this is Chelsea. Then there are no preferences.”