What’s going on at Bayern Munich? The events of the last few days top all known stories about “FC Hollywood” from the past. The club is presenting itself in a fatal way at all levels at the moment. A very special mission awaits Thomas Tuchel!
The new coach Thomas Tuchel has a mammoth task ahead of him – which is much bigger and more serious than almost all observers of FC Bayern Munich would have suspected until recently. Because as the extraordinary events of the last few days show – even for the record champions, who are used to spectacles, there seem to be deep cracks on various levels in the inner structure of FC Bayern Munich.
For Tuchel, this means that he will have the chance to pacify the club from Säbener Straße internally through sporting success alone. If there are no corresponding results on the pitch, there will be a radical upheaval at FC Bayern Munich in the near future, not only within the team but also at management level.
One-off public drama
Even if the officials and many fans still don’t want to hear it: FC Bayern Munich is on the way to becoming a “normal” club in the Bundesliga. The club’s strength, which has been manifested for so many years, has faltered – and more and more problems are becoming apparent that can become a real threat to Bayern Munich’s usual dominance. Because, as experienced observers of the record champions have repeatedly remarked in amazement over the past few days, there has never been such a publicly performed drama in this form and form in all the years of membership in the first Bundesliga, even at “FC Hollywood”.
The fact that something is in the bush at FC Bayern Munich was indicated in mid-February at the latest, when Uli Hoeneß used a talk at the “Neue Presse” in Hanover with a sweeping blow from the “Attack Department” for some of his club and the people involved Taking days out of the (media) line of fire. Three weeks later, new words from Hoeneß about the then Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann made people sit up and take notice: “I think the whole thing is a campaign again – for whatever reason. I don’t understand it. In my opinion, he was not guilty of anything .”
A targeted campaign against Nagelsmann? hard stuff. But of course Hoeneß deliberately shot this smokescreen. However, in the same interview at the time, he said a sentence that has aged extremely badly in view of the events of the past few days: “All goals are still achievable.”
Terrible communication
But exactly this contradiction unites Hoeneß with the current president of FC Bayern, Herbert Hainer. He had said the weekend before last: “Julian is doing very well. The coaching discussion came from outside.” After the release, he said: “Yes, I fully supported Julian Nagelsmann not too long ago and said ‘long-term project’ because I wanted it and hoped that we would do it with Julian.” There was not even a week between these two statements. This way of communicating and this form of public image by President Hainer cannot even be called “abominable” as in the case of Hasan Salihamidžić.
No, it reveals much more the problematic internal relationship at Bayern Munich. Because either these words unmask his accusations (“coach discussion came from outside”) as false or, which would almost be even worse for Bayern, Herbert Hainer would not have been up to date with the internal discussions any more or not always. Whichever of these two options is correct: It shows that at the moment, at least in terms of communication, a lot of things are not going smoothly for the record champions. And that’s putting it very kindly.
And the reactions of the players Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich during the DFB international match against Peru showed that there are also major problems with communication elsewhere within the club. Your clear statements in the direction of Hasan Salihamidžić and Oliver Kahn revealed more about the internal conditions in the club than everyone involved would like. Apparently, the two leading players of FC Bayern and the German national team were neither directly nor indirectly informed of their skepticism about the head coach or their opinions about Nagelsmann included in the decision-making process.
Formally, it may have been due to the narrow time window, but in terms of content, this non-communication is certainly problematic in the short term and in the long term. Because understandably, the reactions or non-reactions of other leading players such as Manuel Neuer or Thomas Müller are now also being looked at more closely.
Success can quickly bring calm
And this look now raises new questions that can be very uncomfortable for Bayern – or possibly reveal the true essence of Julian Nagelsmann’s dismissal. Because the former Bayern Munich coach probably didn’t lose the locker room or got angry with himself, but there was a deep rift in the locker room – and Nagelsmann was no longer trusted to mend it.
- Ben Redelings is a best-selling author and comedian from the Ruhr area.
His current book “60 Years Bundesliga. The Anniversary Album” is a modern classic from the publishing house “The workshop”
He travels throughout Germany with his football programs. Info & dates www.scudetto.de.
Thomas Tuchel is now the head coach in Munich. And anyone who saw the satisfied looks between Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidžić at the introduction and Thomas Tuchel’s first words at the press conference could guess the longing of the two FC Bayern executives for a little more peace and consistency in and for the club. Salihamidžić said yesterday in the “one-two” with bright eyes that “Thomas did very, very well”. That’s correct.
And that is exactly what will be important in the coming days and weeks. Thomas Tuchel will not only be needed as a coach at FC Bayern Munich. He will have to be much more active as a communicator both internally and externally. Best of course accompanied by good results on the pitch. Because, as Uli Hoeneß rightly said, all goals are still achievable. And should that actually work out in the end, football is so fast-moving, the entertaining performances of the adventurous Munich Dilettanten-Stadl of the last few days will soon have been only pleasant memories of turbulent intermediate storms in the cool spring.