Who will succeed Thomas Tuchel?
Bayern icon Rummenigge sees two coaches as a benchmark
March 4, 2024, 4:01 p.m
FC Bayern is facing a difficult search for a coach. Former club boss Rummenigge believes that we have to be guided by two previous guarantees of success. With his statements, he indirectly criticizes all of the record champions’ coaches in recent years – and also his work.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge sees the successful coaches Jupp Heynckes and Pep Guardiola as the benchmark for the upcoming search for a coach at FC Bayern. The two had impressed the former CEO of the German soccer record champions with their passion and sacrifice, as Rummenigge said in the “TOMorrow Business & Style” podcast. “We have to find that coach again who looks after the club with the same dedication as Jupp and Pep did. That’s the benchmark, that will be difficult.” The current Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel will leave the club again in the summer at the latest.
Rummenigge described how closely and trustingly he worked with Guardiola from around 2013 to 2016. “It was more than football that united us. I went to dinner with Pep almost every week. We drank a good bottle of red wine and talked about God and the world. There was such a great relationship of trust.” The fact that Julian Nagelsmann was thrown out last year and that Tuchel now also has to leave early is not good for a club like FC Bayern. “In fact, the frequency of changes is too high,” complained Rummenigge, who was jointly responsible for the coaching search until he left in the summer of 2021 and also poached current national coach Julian Nagelsmann from RB Leipzig for a lot of money.
Chemistry between Tuchel and team not as desired
The former club boss admitted that the chemistry between the team and coach Tuchel was not ideal. He spoke of a “fit between coach and team, which – we have to say this self-critically – is not what we wanted at the moment. There will be changes accordingly.”
The new sports director Max Eberl and the other decision-makers face a difficult task. “Good coaches don’t grow on trees. You have to think carefully,” said Rummenigge. But he is convinced of the new sporting leadership around Eberl, sports director Christoph Freund and CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen. “The club is now well positioned for the future,” analyzed Rummenigge, who sits on the FC Bayern supervisory board.
That’s why he and Honorary President Uli Hoeneß would soon step down again, Rummenigge announced. “At the beginning you have to accompany the whole thing a little bit,” he said and added: “Then they have to swim, and they will swim without the lifebuoy Uli Hoeneß or Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.” He is convinced that Eberl and Co. will not only lead FC Bayern back to calm waters, but also to successful ones.