Daniel Farke may have just missed out on a reunion with his former Borussia Dortmund colleague but could the arrival of Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea be of benefit to Norwich City in the future?

Farke and Tuchel worked together at Dortmund, when Tuchel was in charge of the first team and Farke was leading the second team, with the Canaries boss having previously spoken about the new Blues boss being one of the influences on his coaching style.

Could that lead to potential loan link-ups with the Premier League giants, a vastly wealthy club which makes extensive use of the loan market both for first-team and academy development?

With the Canaries top of the Championship and hoping to earn their second promotion to the top flight under Farke in a few months' time, that relationship could well prove fruitful for both Chelsea and Norwich in the summer.

At his first press conference as Canaries boss, in May 2017, Farke said of his decision to leave Dortmund: “It was not so easy because I had a real close relationship with all the guys, particularly my team, to Thomas Tuchel, Michael Zorc (sporting director) and Hans-Joachim Watzke (chief executive).

“They really appreciated my work a lot. We had different conversations about the future and it was not so easy to leave Dortmund but all in all a very easy decision to arrive in Norwich.”

On the same day, Farke's assistant Eddie Reimer was asked about the style of play that Canaries fans could expect from their new head coach.

He said: “Of course we want to move forward, when we lose possession the defenders have to put pressure on but if you are speaking about David Wagner or Jurgen Klopp, I would say it is more like Thomas Tuchel or Pep Guardiola – but we will see!”

Tuchel had succeeded Jurgen Klopp at Mainz in 2009 and when Klopp left Dortmund to join Liverpool in 2015 they repeated that move by appointing Tuchel.

A few months into his reign Farke arrived as David Wagner's replacement for the second team - who had left for England to join Huddersfield - after his successful spell in the third and fourth tiers of German football with Lippstadt.

Farke steered Dortmund II to fourth and then second place in Regionalliga West during his two seasons in charge, in the fourth tier, before also heading to England to start his reign at Norwich in 2017.

Dortmund's first team, meanwhile, had finished as runners-up to Bayern Munich in both the Bundesliga and DFB Pokal in Tuchel's first season and he left shortly after winning the DFB Pokal in 2017 after a tumultuous season, finishing third in the league and exiting the Champions League at the quarter-final stage.

That followed the distressing situation of a bomb going off close to the team coach, leaving some players shaken and with thankfully only minor injuries. Tuchel's relationship with senior staff had also become strained due to transfer issues though.

Now, after a league and cup double in France with Paris Saint-Germain in 2020, also losing in the Champions League final, Tuchel has been appointed as Frank Lampard's replacement at Chelsea - having been dismissed at PSG just before Christmas, with relations with club bosses again strained.

Farke spoke about his coaching influences last year, in an online question and answer session with City fans, and again cited Tuchel as someone to have contributed to his coaching philosophy.

"I think there is not one special manager, there are always different influences," he explained. "Of course I worked alongside Thomas Tuchel for example at Borussia Dortmund, Jurgen Klopp was a role model, Pep Guardiola, I followed his way quite closely at Bayern Munich.

"Of course all their thoughts and their style influenced what you are doing. If I'm really honest there was one really big role model for me, a bit in the former years, Ottmar Hitzfeld.

"He worked for Borussia Dortmund and for Bayern Munich he was able to win the German title, the Germany cup, to win the Champions League with both clubs.

"He was a role model for me in terms of coming along with the players, in terms of leading the group, treating them like human beings. So if I had to name one, I would name Hitzfeld."

The Canaries have previously had Jimmy Smith (2007) Ryan Bertrand (2008-09) and Patrick Bamford (2016) on loan from Chelsea but with Tuchel knowing all about Farke's reputation for developing young players, City would seem to be in with a good shout of doing business with the Blues again in future.

Farke and Tuchel have also narrowly missed out on a reunion, with Norwich going to Barnsley on Saturday knowing that victory would earn a home tie against Chelsea or Luton in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Instead, after a 1-0 loss, it's the Tykes that will be hosting Chelsea and their new German boss next month.