Bayern Munich suffer another blow as two manager targets rule out summer switch

Bayern Munich's hunt for a new manager has taken two further twists as both Roger Schmidt and Roberto De Zerbi publicly ruled themselves out of the race.

With Thomas Tuchel currently set to step down at the end of the season, Bayern have been trying to find a replacement for the past few months but have suffered public failures in pursuits of Xabi Alonso, Julian Nagelsmann and Ralf Rangnick.

With club officials now forced to work their way down the shortlist of candidates, Schmidt and De Zerbi have been touted as possible hires, but both have now made it clear they have no interest in listening to Bayern.

Beginning with Schmidt, the Benfica coach stressed: "How many times do I have to answer this question? I'm not on the market. I have a job at Benfica and I love it. I don't need an invitation from anyone. My situation is completely clear."

Those comments were quickly followed by De Zerbi, who reaffirmed his desire to stay with Brighton & Hove Albion.

"I think I would like to stay in Brighton because I love my players. I love this city. I love my club, my fans," De Zerbi said.

"I said in the meeting with the fans, if I'm happy, there isn't any club can bring myself to change a team but I want to keep my passion always."

Erik ten Hag of Manchester United was recently touted as a potential replacement for Tuchel, who has been linked with the job at Old Trafford as well, but the current Bayern boss recently teased the idea of remaining beyond the end of the season.

"This is an agreement so this can't be changed," Tuchel said. "Well, you can change every contract on mutual consent because we had a contract as well and we agreed on ending it early so everything is possible.

"But the answer is the same, the agreement stands and the agreement exists."

However, director Christoph Freud recently confirmed to Viaplay that there is "no chance" of Tuchel staying beyond the current campaign.

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