FC Bayern Munich gives up humility
Nagelsmann becomes a gigantic million flop
By Tobias Nordmann & Stephan Uersfeld
03/24/2023 10:01 am
Julian Nagelsmann was only on the sidelines at Bayern Munich for 21 months. With the expulsion of the 35-year-old, the record champions ended a colossal misunderstanding that also cost Munich dearly. The end of the former beacon of hope also has major financial implications.
FC Bayern had set up a wagon camp. The Munich team immediately smothered all criticism and protected their coach Julian Nagelsmann. As it turned out, that was a good thing. Because what happened in this group of wagons in the last few days was supposed to happen in secret. Away from the public. “You can see a clear progress in the year and a half. Julian is doing very well. The coaching discussion in between came from outside, we didn’t start it,” said Bayern President Herbert Hainer in an interview published last Monday the “foosball”. The Hoeneß successor stood behind the coach and he went to the mountains. For skiing. A fatal idea at Bayern since the Neuer injury at the latest.
When the news of his dismissal, first spread on Twitter by a transfer journalist, reached the coach, it surprised him. So far he has only read about it, Nagelsmann reported to “Kicker”. It is still unclear whether only the timing or the dismissal itself was surprising for the 35-year-old. The rumor had been around for a few weeks that Bayern could be looking for a new coach from the summer. Then, it was said, one could also have the severance payment for the former hope Negotiate Nagelsmann and let both sides get out of the matter somewhat face-saving. But it did not get to that.
The end of Julian Nagelsmann after less than 21 months as FC Bayern coach, after only 84 competitive games on the sidelines, is also the end of an episode that shows once again how little the football business cares about the words and promises of the past cares. Everything is thrown overboard for sporting success and the most expensive coach in the world is even more expensive.
Guardiola’s successors were not all happy
Bayern had transferred between 20 and 25 million euros to Leipzig less than two years ago. The fee for Nagelsmann was a record sum for a coach and it cost Bayern between 240,000 euros and 300,000 euros per game, depending on the bill. A huge sum for just one title, because the 35-year-old was ultimately unable to add more to the bulging trophy cabinet. An unimaginable sum. One that will increase significantly again due to the annual salary of rumored eight million euros and a not too low severance payment that is reportedly already fixed in the contract or the continued payment of his salary.
Nagelsmann is, you have to say, a gigantic million flop for FC Bayern, who threw himself blindly at the coach’s feet. The longing for a man who would shape a new era was too great. There has been far too much activity on the coaching bench in recent years. The last man who endured or was allowed to endure it for three years was Josep Guardiola, next opponent in the Champions League. His successors failed because of the club’s ambitions (Carlo Ancelotti), headwind from the dressing room (Niko Kovac and Carlo Ancelotti), or lost power struggles (Hansi Flick). For Nagelsmann, FC Bayern has long been willing to accept a lot of interference and headlines off the field. And to let him emerge as the winner in the power struggle with storm star Robert Lewandowski.
But in the teacup of the turbulence, the level recently rose alarmingly. Because the sporting failure in the Bundesliga swelled to an ever more powerful stream, the wave swept over and tore the coach out of office. A coach who was somehow too inexperienced and already too big for this club in his self-image. That he virtually disempowered Neuer by making Joshua Kimmich the actual captain, that he had rejected the assistant coaches Herrmann Gerland and Toni Tapalovic, that he prescribed tactics against his own well-being for the team, that he had gradually resigned Thomas Müller and driven Lewandowski away that he underestimated the self-image and self-confidence of a star ensemble, that was too much self-inflicted gigantism. Too much restlessness that he could no longer control. Which made him thin-skinned. This erupted, among other things, in the “Pack” attack against the referees and the desperate search for the mole.
Bavaria becomes a money-burning machine
Nagelsmann, however, is by no means the only immensely expensive special item in Bavaria in recent months. The costs associated with the injury to goalkeeper and captain Manuel Neuer amount to around 20 million euros by the end of this season, according to conservative estimates. The sum consists of the continued payment of the national goalkeeper’s salary, the expulsion of goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalovic, the transfer costs for Yann Sommer and payments to the new keeper’s account.
In addition to Nagelsmann and Neuer, FC Bayern also pays heavily for a previous transfer misunderstanding. Because João Cancelo, who was signed by Manchester City without a fee, is by no means a free transfer. Bayern should take over the salary of well over seven million euros for six months for the desired player of the sacked coach. So far, the Portuguese has hardly paid anything back for it.
Before the pandemic began, there was much talk of football’s newfound humility. Football wanted to change, wanted to distance itself from the “shamelessly displayed wealth”, said the then DFL boss Christian Seifert exactly three years ago in an interview with the “FAZ” and followed up a year later. Shortly before that, the spirit of the ESL, the European Super League, had been circulating and had thrown a spotlight on the sometimes desolate financial situation of the European giants FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin. “Some of these clubs are very poorly managed money burning machines,” said Seifert at the time.
The end of humility in German football
A little later, the then Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge jumped to his side. “We all made a big mistake, whether Real, Barça, Juve, City, Bayern or Dortmund,” he told “Bild” in April 2021. “Every year we have increased spending on player salaries, paid higher transfer fees – because we have submitted to a demon called Transfermarkt. We were all damaged by Corona, some more, others less. We have to draw the consequences from that.” A little over a week later, Bayern announced the signing of Nagelsmann, the most expensive coach in the world.
As it has now become clear, FC Bayern Munich did not stick to their own words. In recent years, with reference to international competition, they have continued to contribute huge sums to the transfer process and, with Nagelsmann’s expulsion, have now joined the ranks of the clubs that Seifert has branded as “very badly managed money-burning machines”.
Nagelsmann’s end may be understandable for sporting and human reasons. But being kicked out also shows that football has absolutely no interest in changing. That was what Seifert had demanded back in April 2020. “We don’t just want to get through the crisis somehow and then carry on as before,” the crisis manager said humbly at the time and perhaps couldn’t have guessed how true his words would be. Bayern have now upped the ante with the Nagelsmann episode born in the pandemic. Nagelsmann’s end marks the final end of humility in German football.