This was a real doozy when it broke last night. Bayern Munich’s hierarchy have made the single most stunning sacking of the season yet as they relieved manager Julian Nagelsmann of his duties, even though Bayern still are fighting on three fronts.
Yeah, this hasn’t been the best season for Bayern by any stretch of the imagination, but it also isn’t a failure just yet.
In perhaps the single most challenging season the 32X Bundesliga champions have experienced since 2012 (the last time Bayern didn’t win the league title), Bayern Munich’s two highest executives, CEO Oliver Kahn and Sporting Director Hasan Salihamidžić, have made the biggest sacking of the season as they surprisingly fired manager Julian Nagelsmann.
If you couldn’t tell by my word choices, I don’t understand this sacking in the slightest.
Bayern may not be running away with the Bundesliga title at the moment as they currently sit in 2nd position with a point separating them form 1st place Borussia Dortmund, but it is preposterous to believe that a squad with as much talent, depth, and financial backing as Bayern has cannot overcome a one-point lead to win its 11th straight league title.
I mean, this is a squad that consists of Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry, Sadio Mane, Jamal Musiala, Leon Goretzka, Joshua Kimmich, Lucas Hernadez, Alphonso Davies, Benjamin Pavard, Joao Cancelo, Matthijs de Ligt and Yann Sommer to just name a few. Obviously, Dortmund has quality players of its own, but it’s squad simply can’t compare to the huge talent pool Bayern can draw from.
So, with there still being 9 games left to play in the Bundesliga season for Bayern (including an April 1st matchup against Dortmund), it’s highly likely Bayern overcomes its deficiencies and struggles to lift the 33rd league title in the club’s storied history. What club in the world would sack their manager with nine games left in the league season when a title win is still on the cards? It’s just doesn’t make sense.
Moreover, Bayern are currently in the Quarterfinals of both the DFB-Pokal Cup (the German League Cup) and the Champions League as they have dates against SC Freiburg and Manchester City, respectively, in the upcoming two weeks. So, along with having already won the DFL-Supercup (5-3 victory over RB Leipzig) earlier this season, Bayern Munich could realistically win four trophies this season.
Sure, it’s not likely as Man City are difficult opponents to have to overcome, but winning a domestic treble is nothing to scoff at if Munich only come away with a Bundesliga win, a DFL-Supercup victory, and a DFL-Pokal Cup triumph. Or at least it wouldn’t be in the eyes of executives that don’t act rashly/out of spite.
Again, this has not been a vintage Bayern Munich campaign as they’ve struggled mightily scoring goals in meaningful games, but that’s solely down to Kahn and Salihamidžić’s decision to sell Robert Lewandowski at the start of the season.
Did these two really believe this Bayern squad, which still doesn’t have a traditional #9 other than Eric Choupo-Moting (who was playing for Stoke only a few years ago), was going to score 100+ goals this season without the help of one of the club’s greatest ever goal scorers?
First, insulting Lewandowski by trying to replace him with Erling Haaland (who ended up going to Man City), and then selling him to Barcelona as the club refused to apologize might go down as one of the worst blunders in Munich history.
Lewandowski was not only one of the club’s best ever goal scorers with his 344 competitive Munich goals (he’s scored more in friendly games), but he also had a lot more to give as he’s shown in Barca. The Polish striker currently leads La Liga’s goal scoring charts with 15 league goals for Barcelona, while he has a grand total of 23 goals across all competitions for the club.
Those 23 goals would go a long way for Bayern right now as they just lost to Bayern Leverkusen 2-1 a few days ago, allowing Dortmund to take a one-point lead atop the league.
Nonetheless, none of this is Nagelsmann’s fault as he can only work with the players brought in by Kahn and Salihamidžić, which have been rather lackluster so far. All I’m saying is that Julian Nagelsmann, a manager who was given a 5-year contract less than two years ago and has already won the Bundesliga (2021/22), deserved to be sacked just as much as Oliver Kahn deserved to be sent off for all the red cards in his career.
Oh, wait, that’s a horrible example as Kahn was a great, but extremely reckless, rash goalkeeper that seems to have transferred over to his management style.
Still, if I had to bring in a manager to win important league and cup games before the season’s end, it would be Thomas Tuchel.
The German manger proved he can will a team to huge victories in a short period of time as he won the Champions League with Chelsea after only four months of being the team’s manager.
Can he repeat history and bring this Bayern team to similar heights? Maybe…
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