While it was certainly a decision made by Bayern Munich’s top brass, it wasn’t exactly their intention to have their choice to axe Julian Nagelsmann leaked to the press before they were able to speak with the manager directly. Nagelsmann was in Austria on a ski trip when he found out through the media. This isn’t exactly the most cordial, professional, and diplomatic way to find out that kind of fate.
Over the weekend, sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic explained part of the timeline of how Nagelsmann found out he was going to be sacked and ultimately replaced by Tuchel on Sport1’s Dopplepass. Much like Nagelsmann’s recent tactics sheets ahead of Bayern’s 2-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga, someone leaked the explosive news of Nagelsmann’s imminent sacking to the press that the club.
“On Thursday evening, we found out that it was leaked by a third party person. I don’t know who it was — certainly from the other side. We acted fairly,” Brazzo explained of the events first transpiring at the end of last week (via @iMiaSanMia).
Hm…the other side? Who could that be? Apparently Brazzo did not mean to suggest it was Tuchel or his agent. A familiar name pops up here, agent Pini Zahavi — but it’s not clear, either.
So what went down exactly? “The first person we called on Thursday was Julian Nagelsmann. Such a decision cannot be communicated over the phone,” Brazzo explained. “We told him we would meet at Säbener Straße on Friday. We waited until Thomas Tuchel had accepted. It was leaked before Thomas Tuchel had agreed.”
That’s an extraordinary timeline, but it makes sense that Bayern had to agree with their new manager first before ditching the old one. About those moles, though. It seems that the information leakage around Bayern Munich never stops.
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