FC Bayern: Now Hasan Salihamidzic is under pressure himself

Opinion

It’s a cheap wisdom that football is a day-to-day business. But for the most part it’s true. On the transfer market, as with changing coaches, decisions are made within a few hours or even minutes. Football, the entertainment industry that makes millions, often works like football on the pitch: it’s unpredictable, spontaneous and brutal (or gorgeous, depending).

Seen in this way, the dismissal of Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann was a customary process, as it happens again and again in football. The reasons for his dismissal are understandable. The team’s performances were extremely inconsistent in the Bundesliga. The coach Nagelsmann would probably have had a good chance of being the first Bayern coach in eleven years not to win a championship title. Bayern have lost ten points to Borussia Dortmund since the beginning of the year and lost their lead in the table to their rivals. That’s remarkably weak.

Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic don’t give a good picture

It is understandable that the negative development caused great concern for CEO Oliver Kahn and sports director Hasan Salihamidzic. Even the team’s impressive performances in the Champions League could not put this concern aside. Why should you trust Nagelsmann that the team will perform as well against the next opponents Manchester City and possibly Real Madrid as they did against Paris Saint-Germain? The Bayern bosses had – rightly – lost their trust in their most important employees.

Nevertheless, the rough coaching rotation does not make the leadership of Bayern, and Salihamidzic in particular, look good. The image she gave to the outside world seemed rather haphazard. The question remains whether Bayern would have fired Nagelsmann if Tuchel had not happened to be on the market. Probably not. Until the defeat against Bayer Leverkusen on the Saturday before last, Nagelsmann was considered a “long-term project”. Suddenly everything was completely different and Nagelsmann was shown the door. The “long-term project” became a short-term object without a happy ending within 48 hours (from the defeat on Sunday to the call to Tuchel on Tuesday).

The sporting difficulties of the team have been visible since the second half of the past season at the latest. Robert Lewandowski recognized this early on and criticized it. The Polish superstar had even better reasons to say goodbye to FC Barcelona.

Bayern also fire managers if need be

For Salihamidzic, this means that the supervisory board, on which Uli Hoeneß still sits, will eye him more critically. Nagelsmann was a Salihamidzic project, for which the manager transferred around 20 million euros to RB Leipzig as a transfer fee a year and a half ago and equipped the hopeful with a lavish five-year contract. That’s going to cost Bayern dearly. Maybe that was the reason why Salihamidzic, contrary to his own beliefs, stuck with Nagelsmann longer despite the problems on and off the field. He probably hoped until the very end that “his” coach would get the hang of it.

Now the Bayern leadership is putting everything on the Tuchel card, who best wins all three titles. Or none. Then it should be uncomfortable for Salihamidzic. The Bavarians also fire their managers, regardless of the losses, if need be.