Thursday, April 8th, 2021
Flick’s anger at Bayern
A sentence that destroys everything
By Tobias Nordmann
FC Bayern lost several things this Wednesday evening. An important game, two injured players, a top performer – and possibly also coach Hansi Flick. He says remarkable things after the bankruptcy against Paris St. Germain.
If Jérôme Boateng had accepted the “friendly advice” from Uli Hoeneß in the summer of 2019 and left FC Bayern, then FC Bayern would not be dismantling on Jérôme Boateng these days. But that’s exactly what he does. And in an absurd way that brutally reveals that the peace announced in the media between coach Hansi Flick and sports director Hasan Salihamidzic was or is no more than a public pacification.
The final episode in this peculiar spectacle of power and sovereignty may have happened on Wednesday evening before and after the wild Champions League quarter-final first leg with Paris St. Germain, which tragically won 3-2 (1 : 2) lost. Because before and after this game it was about Boateng. To flick. And about Salihamidzic. Immediately before kick-off, he had announced very succinctly that the central defender was actually not receiving a new contract. And thus confirms what the “kicker” had placed on Easter as a final decision in Munich. Despite the eternal and vehement lobbying work of the trainer.
The fact that, according to the sports directorate, he was involved in the decision can only mean that the Flick, who had been so successful in sport so far, knew of the plans, but was only confronted with immovable facts. Because that he had given them their consent, unthinkable! After the emerging media reports, Flick had too clearly stood by the player’s side. A flaming mini-plea made for him.
Power struggle clearly decided
And after the game, the coach said another sentence that destroyed everything that makes further cooperation with Salihamidzic actually impossible. When asked whether it distracts and bothered him when the departure of a trusted performer is announced immediately before such an important duel, he answered: “I have to answer questions professionally here, but I don’t have to answer everything because I don’t want to . I also have to act a little, that’s part of the coaching job too. “
Acting, as a coach. There is no more suppressed anger. No more affront. No more statement as to who has unrestricted sovereignty in the power struggle over management and transfer issues. The powerful decision-makers at FC Bayern make Flick an executive assistant, not an equal. That annoys him a lot. The alpha masters provide the large framework on the top floor. It has always been like that. You plan the squad, not the coach. They enforce their wishes. Like Leroy Sané, for example. Instead of Timo Werner or Kai Havertz. Flick gets to feel it again and again. With Ivan Perisic, with Thiago, with David Alaba. And now with Boateng. He doesn’t want to accept that. He demands a say, but continues to be vehemently denied him. The crux of a common future.
The sports board’s transfer policy is a constant contradiction to Flick’s ambitions. The list of players the coach has no use for is long. It ranges from Álvaro Odriozola to Bouna Sarr and Marc Roca to Douglas Costa. The fact that there is always interference, for example on the tiresome subject of Alexander Nübel, also hits Flick with a lot. The fact that he has so far not found a permanent place for Salihamidzic’s most expensive coup, the French world champion Lucas Hernández, is also not conducive to the relationship between the two dissenting parties.
And they shy away from making a clear commitment to a common future anyway. Inquiries on Wednesday evening ended in an almost embarrassing egg dance about “known contract terms”, sentences like “everything is said and done” and “very good cooperation”. That was pretty unbelievable. And it became a mockery when Flick talked about his necessary acting. It was possibly the final sentence that finally destroyed his future in Munich (with the good options behind him to switch to the DFB as national coach). He had already lost the power struggle. Not just because of Boateng. But especially because of him.
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