Borussia Dortmund chief: 'New deal for Thomas Tuchel an option'

Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has revealed that a new contract could be offered to boss Thomas Tuchel, but that will likely wait until the summer.

The 43-year-old, who joined BVB from Mainz 05 in June 2015, was recently tipped to replace under pressure Arsene Wenger as Arsenal's next manager.

Tuchel's position at the Westfalenstadion is itself understood to be in doubt, however, as Dortmund find themselves 13 points adrift of Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga table and are a goal down in their Champions League last-16 meeting with Benfica ahead of next month's second leg.

Watzke, quick to play down Tuchel's links to Arsenal at the time, says that the club will likely wait until the end of the campaign to evaluate whether a new deal should be awarded.

"Of course a new contract is an option," he told German publication Bild. "Let's be honest here, we are not too far away from our pre-season objectives in any of the competitions we take part in. It is not like everything has gone wrong for us."

Dortmund, previously managed by Jurgen Klopp for seven years, have won three of their last eight league games.