Managerial limbo and the not so hidden problems of Bayern Munich – Part 5
By Tim Richards
Bayern Munich approach the end of the ’17-18 season with no solidified plans of what comes next, a result of poor planning by the club’s upper management.
Carlo Ancelotti’s laissez-faire approach to management caused a stir at Bayern Munich ever since his arrival. His abysmal showing in Bayern Munich’s 3-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain was the last straw. Although conceding three goals away to one of the best teams in Europe isn’t the worst scoreline imaginable, it was everything that led up to this game that foreshadowed his departure.
Pre-season fixtures saw strong Bayern teams lose five matches to opponents that are hardly considered Bayern’s equals. Losses of 2-0 to Napoli, 2-0 to Inter Milan, 3-0 to Liverpool and 4-0 to AC Milan, as well as losing on penalties to Bayern’s long-term Champions League speed-bump Arsenal were not the results the Bavarians would have hoped for.
Warning signs
While pre-season is reserved for experimentation, and both trial and error are expected, these results came off the back of a tumultuous and uncharacteristically bad season. The pre-season fixtures were not the warning signs, though.
They occurred so long after the first warning signs were first seen — halfway through the season with Bayern scraping last minute goals to earn narrow victories against Hamburg and Hertha Berlin, or barely managing to secure a point against Freiburg and Mainz. Four matches may be a small sample, but the pool of terrible performances with less than mediocre results is vast.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and seeing a rejuvenated Bayern beat that same PSG 3-1 is something that not many people would have predicted back in October. But losing 3-0 against a full strength Paris outfit was maybe one of the better scorelines Bayern could have asked for.
This result, however, was not good enough, and finally (several months after falling out of the the quarter-finals of the Champions League, the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal and making very hard work of the Bundesliga title) Ancelotti was sacked.
He “lost the locker room” (Arjen Robben, Thomas Müller, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng and Manuel Neuer were all named as potential catalysts), and those in charge felt the right person to take over was someone they have called upon more times than anyone else.
Jupp Returns
For a record fourth time since 1987, Bayern looked to Jupp Heynckes to carry the team forward for what was initially thought to be the remainder of the season (but if Uli Hoeness gets his way, could shape up to be for the rest of Jupp’s life).
Ancelotti’s sacking was in part due to a lack of innovation, going back to the same thing over and over again and not trying something new despite the same end product or lack thereof. The irony here, though, is that this is exactly how Hoeness and Rummenigge have approached finding managers since 2009.
It is easy to see why Heynckes was deemed the right choice. Although Willy Sagnol had no hesitations about stepping up to the plate, his short spell at Bordeaux pales in comparison to the accolades Jupp boasts.
However, it speaks volumes of those in charge that the board would rather play it safe with Jupp than take a risk with literally any other manager.
Maybe Thomas Tuchel would have been the right candidate if he had the luxury of having his own pre-season run out with the players. Maybe Sagnol’s inexperience would have made things worse. Maybe Bayern would have beaten Dortmund in the Pokal had they started Joshua Kimmich in place of Xabi Alonso.
Maybe Bayern could have won in Paris with a more rugged, brute force approach if they had Renato Sanches to compete with Adrian Rabiot. It’s an unlikely hypothetical but… maybe.
We’ll never know.
The results since Jupp’s return have been brilliant. The performances have been much more impressive. But who knows what could have been under another manager?
A need for someone new
With only two months left until the end of the season, Bayern are still, apparently, in talks with Heynckes to confirm his presence on the bench next season. Countless efforts from the man himself to make it abundantly clear that he will retire is not enough for Uli Honess.
In passing the opportunity to bag a top quality and readily available coach such as Thomas Tuchel in favor of someone else, Bayern risk the chance of missing out on a sense of quality entirely.
Trigger happy chairmen of clubs that have possibly struggled at times this season (Roman Abramovich of Chelsea, Florentino Perez of Real Madrid, Ed Woodward of Manchester United) will have Thomas Tuchel as one of the top names on their lists. All it takes is for Antonio Conte to have one bad match and he will be gone from Stamford Bridge. Tuchel’s future could soon be purchased by a club in Londone whose checkbook has no limit.
Next: Managerial limbo and the not so hidden problems of Bayern Munich - Part 4
Bayern are heading toward the ’18-19 season without a firm plan in terms of their coach. The upper management’s plans currently rely on a 72-year-old man, who will be 73 by the time the season starts, changing the plans he has had set in place since 2007. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and, for Uli Hoeness, his plans are on the verge of going as awry as possible.