I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Julian Nagelsmann has been sacked by Bayern Munich with immediate effect. This comes at a tough stretch of games (title deciding match vs Borussia Dortmund, Champions League clash vs Manchester City) and the timing couldn’t be any worse. Rumors have started to circulate on what happened behind the scenes, but the board is apparently disappointed with Nagelsmann’s handling of young up-and-comers.
According to a report from Sport1’s Kerry Hau (as captured by @iMiaSanMia):
The bosses would have overlooked the lack of development of young players if the team had performed more consistently under Nagelsmann. They consider that the coach did not manage to get most out of the team and see him mainly to blame. The general opinion is that with the exception of Jamal Musiala, who had already been introduced by Hansi Flick, no youngster developed into a regular player under Nagelsmann.
Mathys Tel, Ryan Gravenberch, who were brought in from other clubs, as well as homegrown talents Paul Wanner and Arijon Ibrahimović hardly got a chance. Nagelsmann placed more emphasis on results than on talent development.
![1248028601 FC Bayern München v FC Augsburg - Bundesliga](https://bundesligatabe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/1248028601.jpg)
(Continuation of the report)
Nagelsmann did not fully lose the dressing room. The coach and big parts of the team were completely caught off guard by the news. Nagelsmann had important advocates in the team, such as Kimmich, but there were tensions & no harmony on a human level with some players.
Nagelsmann worked a lot on tactics but found it difficult to moderate the squad. The substitute players often complained about how Nagelsmann dealt with them. He wouldn’t justify his decisions and would only speak to the established players. Talents only had contact – if at all – with the assistant coaches Dino Toppmöller and Xaver Zembrod. Bayern’s original plan was to finish the season with Nagelsmann and then, depending on the results, consider the Tuchel option.
However, the fact that other clubs were showing interest in Tuchel made the bosses decide to act immediately. The people in charge want a new impetus and trust Tuchel to win the treble, a feeling that they no longer had with Nagelsmann.
Using the apparent stall in the development of youngsters to get rid of your coach is the kind of faulty logic that I can never grasp. I know that developing youngsters is what Bayern want these days, but like I said, this difficult period in the season isn’t the time to tinker around and gamble stability. The fact that they wouldn’t go through with the original plan of letting him see out the season is absurd.
Nagelsmann has everything that needs to bring Bayern to greater heights, the board fully supported him with players, coaches, and even training instruments, and they just make it all for nought? Frankly, if the rumors of going for Tuchel since Pep Guardiola left were true and that (tinfoil hat time!) the board secretly planned to sack Nagelsmann while Tuchel was available, it’s a waste of time and money.
The board’s impatience will come back to bite them. Guarantee it.
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