In the midst of all the chaos and confusion at Bayern Munich lately, at least we have some good news to talk about. After weeks of difficult negotiations, the club have finally signed assistant coach Anthony Barry from Chelsea FC, on the request of Thomas Tuchel. Barry will be on the bench for Bayern versus Mainz on Saturday.
Here is the official announcement on the club’s Twitter account:
“I’m pleased we’ve managed to recruit Anthony Barry,” said club sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic. “Anthony completes our coaching staff and is an ideal fit for FC Bayern with his passion and his quality.”
According to older reports in Christian Falk’s Bayern-Insider podcast (via @iMiaSanMia) the compensation package is estimated to be around 500k, rising to a million euros with bonuses. It’s not yet clear how this stacks up to the fees Bayern paid to acquire Nagelsmann’s assistants Dino Topmoller, Benjamin Gluck, and Xaver Zembrod from RB Leipzig, though the money is still quite significant for an assistant.
The move finally completes Tuchel’s coaching staff, which had been lacking compared to the previous regime. When Nagelsmann was sacked, he took almost all of his backroom staff with him.
These last three years have seen significant coaching turnover at Bayern Munich. Only fitness expert Dr. Holger Broich remains from the crew that won the 2020 treble with Hansi Flick. Hopefully the new group sticks around a little longer, as the club is in dire need of some stability right now.