Speaking to Der Spiegel (via @iMiaSanMia), current Germany head coach and former Bayern Munich manager Julian Nagelsmann has given his thoughts on his time at Bayern Munich.
On if the move came too early in his career, Nagelsmann said: “Not at all”
More importantly, the former Bayern manager believes that at Bayern, managers are not given enough time: “I was appointed at Bayern with the aim of changing things. There are clubs that give you the time. Jürgen Klopp was at Liverpool FC for five years until he became champion there for the first time. Pep Guardiola only won the Champions League title with Manchester City after seven years. The coaches at Bayern Munich don’t get that much time to develop something.”
This comment is particularly relevant amid the speculation surrounding Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen. The view is clear that Bayern see Alonso in the same light as Nagelsmann when they bought him from RB Leipzig for €25m in 2021. However, Nagelsmann was sacked just over a year and a half into his five-year contract. What is to say that this would not happen to Alonso as well? It is also reported that at Bayern,
Nagelsmann also expressed what he had learned from his time at Rekordmeister: “As a coach you shouldn’t attract too much attention. On the other hand, I don’t want to completely pretend to be another person for a job. I have different character traits than, for example, Jupp Heynckes. I just do some things differently, simply because I’m younger. I don’t stand on the line at FC Bayern games in a beige trench coat just because some of my predecessors did that. The people in charge in Munich knew in advance that I would also wear a red jacket. And it didn’t bother them. But when you fail, such trivialities are often glossed over”
Additionally, the Bundestrainier added: “I would say: more careful, more sensitive. Things aren’t always super nice in football. It doesn’t help if you have a good relationship with the decision-makers. And that’s what I had with Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidžić. We discussed how we would like to deal together if a worst-case scenario occurs. But then everything was different in reality. The question arises: How open will I be to protagonists in this industry in the future? When people stop talking after a defeat, you know that something is wrong. At all the clubs I’ve worked at, I’ve always wished they would tell me openly when they wanted a new coach. I would be able to deal with it and still want to win the next game. That goes without saying, after all it’s about my career. But there is a lack of openness in the business. What is communicated to the outside after a separation has little to do with reality. But that’s how it’s always been in football, and it will be that way for the next 30 years”
GGFN | Jack Meenan
