And 4 of those 5 have a sugardaddy.
FC Bayern 2015/16
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
AM was 16 points from the title last year, 24 in 12/13 and 44 the year before that. The PL is the exception, not the rule. Which will change the second Abramovich or the Sheiks decide they want a new toy.
Who are the other two? It's only Chelsea & City.
Thats what it comes down to basically.
On an emotional level, these transfers of course fuel the strained relationship between Dortmund and Bayern Munich (both in terms of supporters and officials). "They would have left anyway" simply does not cut it here. As supporter you always prefer a top player leaving abroad than inside the league, which should not be a concept which is hard to understand, but also completely foreign to Bayern supporter at this point. They are spoiled rotten in that aspect.
In a more objective light, the biggest damage these transfers cause is acutally in terms of image and reputation. If I take the potential Hummels move as example no party comes out of it positively.
1. The player is seen as taking the easy route to win trophies, as Bayern has in this regard a clear advantage over the rest of the league. In this particular case, Hummels´ statuts as captain and the grand speeches he made over the years play a amplifying role here.
2. Bayern Munich is seen as the predator, which tries to keep the competition small in order to win national titles. This reputation is superficial at best as the transfers between them were not deciding in the title races. Even without Götze and Lewandowski (instead of Mandzukic) I doubt they would have had much trouble winning the national titles they did. The gap was too wide anyway. Agreeing terms with Lewandowski as early as they did, which made it impossible for us to sell abroad for a fair fee, did hurt us financially but not enough to close the gap. Problem here is, that most people don´t bother looking at it deeply enough and the media also does it best to make that image stick.
3. Dortmund finds itself in the vicitm role. This is partly true, but not exclusively in relation to Bayern Munich. The football business is quite simple in that regard. The higher tier club takes players from the ones of the lower tier. In our case the higher tier are the European elite clubs, which are the only clubs we lose players to. To get out of this cycle you have to eventually establish yourself in the top tier, which usually takes many years of good decisions unless you have a highly potent investor backing you. Here we are on not such a bad way as we do grow consistently despite losing players and have now established ourselves on a higher level as teams, which used to be on eye level (Schalke, Wolfsburg, Leverkusen). This Hummels deal might even start a chain reaction, which would be continued by us taking the defensive leader (Toprak) of the currently third strongest team. We already took one of their most consistent and important midfielder last Summer and this despite only offering EL. Just being the clear second in the Bundesliga is not enough for the public expecations, though. We are supposed to present a realistic threat to the top dog and keep the title race open as long as possible. Losing player after player to the club we are supposed to rival makes that expectation seem silly.
4. The Bundesliga loses interest and excitement. It is all nice that the relegation battles and fight for the remaining International spots are close, but especially from outside the country the primary focus is the title race. Seeing the first place take players from the challenger seemingly at will clearly devalues the title itself. You have a competiton where one team always has a big head start and anything outside them winning the title is a huge surprise. It also paints a negative picture of the league in terms of quality than it actually has .Nobody really cares how well we played this season as it was in the end simply not enough to pose a real challenge. No matter how well the juggernaut plays people will simply stop to care about a league which is decided from the start. The longer that domination lasts the bigger that effect will become. People without a special connection to a Bundesliga club will simply look to another league to follow as there is seeminly more competition and suspense elsewhere.
Humm, doesn't Leichester count?
People who own PL teams aren't going to be poor. Aston Villa, Sunderland, Stoke and Newcastle all have billionaire owners too. Leicester's spending has been pretty average in the PL and most of that is from the TV revenue, I doubt their owner has been spending millions of his own money on transfers.
It's not really a question if these things should be done, but if they could be done. As a start, I'm all for changes that limit Bayern's advantage. I want a more competitive league (actually I want more competitive football in Europe in general with smaller leagues closing the gap on the big leagues again). But it looks like wishful thinking right now, because the necessary steps would be increasing home grown quotas and sharing the tv and some of the commercial income of the big clubs with the whole leagues. I'd welcome that, but it's unlikely to happen. Now back to your 3 suggestions and why they wouldn't necessary work the way you hope they do:
Increasing ticket prices only gets you so far. Matchday income has become less and less important compared to commercial revenue. 59% of Bayern's revenue is from commercial deals, only 19% from matchday revenue. The gap between our 89.8m to Dortmund's 54.2m is probably mostly down to the number of vip boxes and business seats we sell to companies in the Allianz Arena, which is where the vast majority of money in that regard is made. Dortmund is at a big disadvantage there due to how their stadium is built. Even doubling the ticket prices wouldn't have a massive impact for Dortmund while they would alienate their fans and kill the atmosphere in the stadium. The latter is also part of Dortmund's marketing, so it might not even be a financial advantage at all. They'd lose something that's unique and wonderful about their club.
Get a larger TV deal sounds easy enough, the problem is that it's mostly down to domestic pay TV deals and Germany as a country still doesn't really accept that form of tv in a big enough scale to justify it. The clubs and the German FA are desperately trying to push that, but if you look at the number of people in Germany who pay for sky compared to other countries despite it being a lot cheaper, you'll quickly realise that it's an almost impossible fight. (In 2015, sky UK had more than 12m abonnements, sky Germany less than 5m and again, sky Germany costs about half of what English football fans pay and that doesn't even include the 2nd deal with BT). It's really a cultural problem here in that people simply don't accept that they have to pay additional money to watch tv, be it sports or television, football or game of thrones. The big Bundesliga crisis that started in 2002 happened when the Kirch-Group went broke and stopped paying the tv money to the Bundesliga clubs because they simply offered to much money for Bundesliga football. Back then it was still premiere, which later became sky Germany and during the 90's the Kirch-Group desperately tried to establish pay TV in Germany and completely failed. In 2002 all the other major leagues in Europe made more and more money from pay TV each year, while the Bundesliga made zero and slowly had to build it up over a decade. Just to give you some context regarding the different circumstances. We went from a heavily competitive era in the late 90's/early 00's with clubs like Schalke, Dortmund, Bayern winning UEFA Cup/CL finals and Stuttgart, Leverkusen also reaching European finals to one where we almost dropped out of the top 6 in UEFA's coefficient. Part of it was the drop in quality in the new German generation of footballers, but the massive financial disadvantage in tv deals compared to the other European leagues played an equally big role. It was a key reason for Leverkusen losing all their top players so quickly after the CL final 2002 and for Dortmund's financial collapse after the title win and UEFA Cup final in 2002 as well.
Which brings us to the 50+1 rule. Now, let's ignore the fact that the vast majority of German football fans want to keep that rule (and I'm talking about everyone here, in fact Bayern fans are problably more open about getting rid of that rule than Dortmund or Schalke fans). The problem with sugardaddy money in football is that it's somewhat uncontrolable. It worked out perfectly in England, when Chelsea's rise happened at the same time United still had the greatest manager of all time putting up a fight and then City's rise happened shortly before FFP at least temporarily restricted their spending before it got out of control (Imagine Ferguson had actually retired in the early 00's or City wouldn't have been punished by UEFA and had further increased their spending, who knows how the Premier League would have looked like over the past 12-13 years). In other leagues, it destroyed the competitiveness, PSG in France the obvious example. Even in Italy where Juve are even more dominant than Bayern in Germany, it doesn't seem to work that well and people hope that some rich Chinese guy buys Milan and spends a shitload of money, so that they can challenge Juve again. It's absurd to think that this is in any way or form a healthy solution to the problem. It's just complete randomness. We'll see how serious Red Bull is about football now that it's all but confirmed that RB Leipzig is finally in the Bundesliga next season. If FFP is more or less gone for good, they could be the sugardaddy club in Germany many are crying for. I highly doubt that Dortmund or Schalke would be happy if a club founded a few years ago becomes a 2nd juggernaut next to Bayern and keeps everyone else without a chance to regularly compete for trophies though. Wolfsburg, Leverkusen and Hoffenheim are already working kinda outside the 50+1 rule anyway, it's just that the companies behind these clubs don't spend as big as City or PSG. Red Bull might be different.
Again, I'm all for solutions that help turning the European football landscape into a healthy and more competitive landscape again. But a lot of the things that worked in England happened coincidently under circumstances that aren't replicable in other countries. And none of what turned the Premier League in that competitive league we've seen this year is a natural development out of the game. It's an artificial product that leaves many football fans all over Europe frustrated with their own domestic football landscape. I personally think it's sad when football fans from Eastern Europe are mostly fans of English or German or Spanish clubs nowadays because their own leagues are constantly robbed of every talented player so early that the quality of the leagues dropped to awful levels. Countries that have been so influential in the game in previous decades and given us many exciting teams are laughed at now by the big leagues. It's just sad and the Premier League is the worst culprit in that regard, exploiting the changes in the game since the Bosman ruling more than anyone else.
While I agree with you in general, I'd like to point out that it's time to stop whinging about Bayern and look to the smaller clubs and why they are so sub par. I mean honestly, literally every other team in the Bundesliga is crying bloody murder everytime Bayern goes on a shopping spree, but the real reason why Bayern can go and pillage through the Bundesliga is because they are doing shite work. Management in the league needs to step it up and stop being pussies about it. So you lose a player, deal with it and get a replacement. Improve the club, improve the team. Don't rely on silly emotional things like "tradition" or "club history". HSV has the longest history and one of the biggest traditions, yet their club structure is really keeping them back. What happened to Schalke? Why did Bremen not prepare for the inevitable loss of good players?
It's always the same... due to the incompetency of the competitors a random club gets into the Europa League or behold, the CL and suddenly they think they are someone and make stupid decisions and don't realise that on the big stage in Europe, all they're doing is promote their players for sale. And they never prepare for the loss of players. And they never have a replacement ready. De Bruyne? That was not a surprise. Özil? Did Bremen really think they could keep him after the performances he showed? You always have these situations... one or two players playing well above average in a team and the club thinking "Oh, he likes it here, I'm sure he'll stay no matter what!"
No, they won't. Tradition and history is worth jack shit if you don't play CL or pay them 10+ millions per year and get knocked out of the national cup in the round of 16 and happen to find yourself in midtable during the season more often than not wondering how many points you have before you get relegated.
TL;DR: It's easy to blame Bayern, but it's not helpful. They should look for reasons why players are leaving on their own doorstep.
This. It isn't as if the Bundesliga or Germany could only support one top club. The money is there, the crowds are there, the sponsors are there. Its just that some clubs who would have the resources are bottling it year after year. Schalke, Wolfsburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart... and don't get me started about Berlin. Whining about Bayern bullying is often just to cover homemade feckups.
It goes both ways though. Both sides need to look at themselves and the impact of their own decisions. Bayern isn't destroying the Bundesliga like some are suggesting, that's of course silly and it's certainly not our fault how badly run clubs like for example Hamburg are. But we're also making it unnecessary difficult for other clubs at times without an actual benefit for our own team. The Hummels transfer is certainly one that makes you ask why and it's not as easy to answer as it was in the cases of Götze or Lewandowski. In fact, I find it easier to argue that the Hummels transfer hurts us longterm because his addition to the team will have less of a positive effect for us than the negative impact on the league will indirectly hurt our own development. The demands our board has on the league and how they should sell the product so that we get more tv money simply aren't in line with our own actions to make that possible. It's really the wrong time to blindly defend our decisions, we never should have offered Hummels a contract.
I tend to disagree. Bayern *do* need another top notch CB badly. Benatia didn't really deliver, Tasci, if he stays, is nothing more than the backup of a backup. Which leaves us with two and a half CBs one of which has requested to add "currently in Reha" as second surename in his passport, the half being Martinez who Ancelotti may have different plans for and who never convinced me fully in the CB role. Badstuber is a gamble, a big one. In fact, we've been lucky that Boateng stayed healthy and played consistently the last two years.
I recon for a CL contender team, three top CBs are about the minimum. For years we have been one injury/one yellow card ban away from improvisations at the CB position. We have like 10 options for 5 positions in attack and needed all of them this season.
Alaba does well in a row of three, but he is missed on the left wing by his frontmen Ribery/Costa when he defends. Bernat is good, but he's no miracle.
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We need one more, but it doesn't have to be Hummels. We could easily attract a centerback from abroad and it's not like Hummels is a totally risk-free transfer. He struggled with injuries and with his form consistently over the last 3 years, it's not comparable to signing Lewandowski who was the only elite striker on the market.
He's been offering it to the club, they just haven't used it, Leicester are closer to most in the PL to having a sugar daddy. Plus there's that whole dodgy sponsorship thing going on.
Well what team absolutely needs a specific player and only him, they all need reinforcements on a specific position and for any of those, there's a limited supply (some more than other, given - many top coaches would give their right arm for a fullback like Lahm, which we use rarely as such
).I happen to think that Lewandowski was a luxury solution for Bayern as well. The system we play is less dependent on having one than other team's. Gomez scored, Madzukic scored. Its nice to have Lewa, but not mandatory. His skillset makes him suitable for us no doubt, but where he really excelled was as target man for Dortmund style assault attacks.
I disagree with the point about Lewandowski. Mandzukic or Gomez wouldn't have coped as well in a side without Ribery and Robben carrying the attack, neither of the two strikers was anywhere close to Lewandowski or ever shouldered as much responsibility. But if you think that Lewandowski was just a luxury upgrade, he kinda fits the point as well although in his case it's at least true that he would have left Dortmund to a foreign club if we weren't interested. That's not necessarily true for Hummels.
We can't just blame everyone else for their decisions and ignore the impact our own decisions have on the league. If a player is only a marginal upgrade and the sideeffects are so negative on the league that it hurts our own development for various reasons, it becomes a stupid transfer. Shifting the blame to everyone else isn't helpful in finding a solution. We need a competitive league to excel ourselves longterm, it's always been that way. We have to take some responsibility for causing massive problems off the pitch to rival clubs (although nowhere near as much as some suggest). It's absolutely ridiculous and stupid that we put so much pressure on the DFL in the negotiations for higher tv deals and at the same time make their job much more difficult by hurting the competitiveness of the league. And no matter how often we deny it, the negative impact of a player moving from Dortmund to us is a huge problem, a bigger problem than the same player leaving to a club abroad.
We can't just blame everyone else for their decisions and ignore the impact our own decisions have on the league. If a player is only a marginal upgrade and the sideeffects are so negative on the league that it hurts our own development for various reasons, it becomes a stupid transfer. Shifting the blame to everyone else isn't helpful in finding a solution. We need a competitive league to excel ourselves longterm, it's always been that way. We have to take some responsibility for causing massive problems off the pitch to rival clubs (although nowhere near as much as some suggest). It's absolutely ridiculous and stupid that we put so much pressure on the DFL in the negotiations for higher tv deals and at the same time make their job much more difficult by hurting the competitiveness of the league. And no matter how often we deny it, the negative impact of a player moving from Dortmund to us is a huge problem, a bigger problem than the same player leaving to a club abroad.
Because they couldn´t, because good management alone does not guarantuee big growth, To blame mismanagement in general is too easy as they are well managed clubs in the league, Augsburg, Mainz, Gladbach or Leverkusen to name a few. The problem with these clubs is that substantial growth is also highly dependent on the potential of the club. Nobody is denying that Bayern´s officials did good work over the last decades, but the club also had some very strong circumstances to grow into the size they are today: being situated in one of the richest cities in the country and the richest federal state or being backed by some of the biggest German companies for example. Bremen did a lot of good work for years, but never had the potential to grow solid enough to not be highly dependent on what happens on the pitch every season. Their bubble was always going to burst just like Leverkusen´s as the margin of error was extremely small and in the end exactly that cost them.
Out of all German clubs, only a handful of clubs has the potential to become some kind of threat to Bayern in the first place and the only club managed well enough in recent history for that is us. I don´t see that changing anytime soon either. Even if Schalke start to act wiser a lot of the damage is already done, especially on youth level (Schalke´s long standing saving grace), as they lost their status as North-Rhine-Westfalias top academy in the last few years to us.
I don´t know what can be done to reverse or at least slow down this development of the gap between Bayern and the rest of the league. On the contrary I see it becoming even harder for the Leverkusen´s, Schalke´s and Gladbach´s to catch up, because we might very well become a predator in the league aswell. When we lose players to the elite, we will also look in the Bundesliga at first and if the current rumours about Hummels´ replacement are any indication, it will probably be the defensive leader of the current 3rd, who is supposed to represent the league in the CL next season.
This current season might very well become a permanent picture of the league´s future, where you can not even predict the top 2 but also the order of them. The rest will not only have to fend of the interested foreign clubs but also the top 2 aswell.
So anyone certain to leave this summer from Bayern?
I heard that Benatia is on his way out? Anyone else that is almost certain to leave?
I heard that Benatia is on his way out? Anyone else that is almost certain to leave?
This is actually something that surprised me. I mean City and Chelsea are financially able to pay competitive wages to us but Arsenal and Liverpool shouldn't be without putting a massive strain on their budget. Yet RvP remains the only high caliber player in recent years that I can remember joining us from these clubs. Funnily enough City pretty much gets free pickings when it comes to players from these teams, which is a bit strange to me.
Either City wasn't perceived much as a threat, they pay much more than we are willing to or they are just smarter when it comes to convincing players to join them, through which ever means that might happen.
Benatia, Rode, Götze look like the obvious candidates but nothing's set in stone yet.
Is Benatia still any good?
During his time at Bayern he picked up a myriad of muscle injuries and when he played he often looked sluggish and unfocused. He did put in some solid performances and didn't feck up recently but overall he's been a huge flop.
What about Ribery or Robben? I can see one of them leaving.
I am sure both wiill end their career at Bayern. They are too old to make big money on and they perform on a too high level to sell for cheap. Also, both of them are on rather short contracts(until 2017) so Bayern can adjust their salaries to their actual contribution on the field for the next contract extensions. Bayern usually only does 1 year contract extensions for players of 30.
They are also big fan favourites.
Ouch, do not want then. I remember a fair bit of buzz during his Roma days.
I was also very excited when we signed him, given our injury woes. Just didn't work out at all. We might ship him back to Roma at a huge loss, but good riddance.
You make a lot of good points. But I'd like to stress that Hamburg and Berlin are much bigger and richer than Munich, yet their teams are mediocre at best (let's not forget that Hertha was relegated not too long ago, this current form could be a fluke). Hamburg especially is a showcase of how a big club that had everything, from success over history and tradition to money and good players in addition to a stupidly loyal and big fanbase gets to the shithouse they're now in. That's 100% bad management. Take Bremen, they are managed solidly. For a second or third division club. They need to start acting like a champ if they want to be a champ. Bayern may have Adidas for the next century in their pockets, but you can't tell me that aside from Dortmund there's not one other club attractive enough to make a half decent deal that'll make them more independent?
Look, I am not dissing clubs like Darmstadt, first league is a big adventure for them. But if those old hounds like Schalke, Hamburg and Gladbach don't get their shit together and start building solid foundations, I'll actually cheer for RB Leipzig to tear them a new one, because they don't deserve better. I wouldn't be this harsh if people didn't constantly blame Bayern for "destroying the league", I want to add. I don't like the concept that RB Leipzig brings to the table, but if that's what's needed to wake everyone else up, then so be it.
You mentioned your club, Dortmund... and I have to say, they are the only ones that woke up in time and I still see them on a level with Bayern. Last season I kept telling everyone that it's a fluke. And this season proved me right. And that's because Watzke knows his stuff, simple as that.
No, just no. Berlin is by no means richer than Munich, it is the city with the highest amount of debt in the country and have by no means the amount of big companies as Munich has. Hertha can also not be judged the same way as Bayern. Berlin was divided and isolated for over 40 years, while Bayern build their foundation. They also simply lack the fanbase as a lot of people who live there already support a different club. Having the Olympiastadium as their home stadium also does them more harm than good.
Gladbach is also hardly an example for bad management, at least not in the last five years and while having a rich history, they also don´t have the same potential as Dortmund, Schalke or Hamburg.
Don't worry.
Ancelotti will win it for you guys next year.
Ancelotti will win it for you guys next year.
Um, not to sound patronising, but the city of Berlin isn't paying for the club. When we're talking about "richer cities", I'm thinking about "which city population can spend more money", not the public budget of the city. I highly doubt Munich is paying much for Bayern. In fact, I'm fairly certain the city of Munich is doing not much more than police force support during matchday.
Be that as it may, Germany is the biggest economy in Europe. It has enough money to go around to support more than two clubs on a proper level. But if teams keep throwing away money and manage their clubs badly, that's on them. Not Bayern. Again, I point to Watzke. He seems to be doing a pretty decent job, despite all the hardships the club had to endure in the past 15 years. And I have no doubt whatsoever that Dortmund can be a real competitor to Bayern for an indefinite amount of time, too.
As for the rest of the league, I don't want to critique what they do. But everytime I read "Bayern is destroying the league", I will think in my head "Nope, you're just shite... change that!" What do people expect from competitive sports? That Bayern suddenly stops making the right decisions just to give everyone else "a chance"? Why wouldn't Bayern pillage through the domestic league, their primary goal is the CL trophy. If people want a "fair" league, they'll have to look to US sports... that's the one where players are drafted in reverse order of the last championship, so the weaker teams get dibs at the best players. Is that kind of artificial competitive distortion what we want in football? Or salary caps?
I wouldn't mind some of these ideas to close the gaps between the elite and the rest a bit, it's grown way too big. That being said, I wouldn't want to lose relegation/promotion, the connection between the different leagues in a country instead of a fixed number of franchises and I would hate it if youth academies were totally independent from clubs and players wouldn't develop slowly into first team players at their own clubs anymore but randomly moved around. Neither system is perfect.
Well, the most important aspect for me in football is the close connection to the base roots of amateur football. Ideally, any team, in any league, should be able to theoretically play against any other teams if they want to improve themselves. The national cups are a good example of that. Relegation/promotion is another corner stone. If you're good enough, you could play against Bayern, you just need to get promoted often enough or get lucky in the national cup. The wealth gap is a problem, but as long as teams like Leicester can win the PL, I don't think it's something we need to acutely address with agressive means.
I don't see a problem with Bayern's dominance, they've earned it. I do however think that it's in their own interest to leave Dortmund (and other teams who might challenge them) some breathing room, because if the league turns into a joke that is over by March they are going to suffer a lot from it too, even if they win every single title. And I don't mean that just in a financial sense.
interesting read in "die Zeit" about Bayern and the Pep era.
"Der Hausmeister hätte das nicht geschafft" (german) ("The greenkeeper wouldn't have achieved this")
The article joins the discussion about what the record is of Peps spell in munich. Was it a failure, because "even the greenkeeper would have won 3 BL titles" with that team? And will Bayerns dominance continue?.
The author makes a few interesting points. He says that the Bayern team of 2016 is actually inferior to that of 2013. After thinking "what the..?!", i reconsidered. He might actually have a point here. The class of the teamplay imroved, the individual quality went down a bit. Players like Robben, Ribery, Alonso or even Lahm have passed their zenith, and their successors like Coman, Costa, Kimmich or even Alaba don't have the class yet the former had a few years ago. The only world class addition was Lewandowski. Who is on a position i don't consider *that* crucial for Bayern.
That Bayern played football at the same level as they did 2013 is due to Peps "system football", the author claims. I agree.
Interesting sidenote: There was another article about Pep a couple of days ago. Allegedly he said that, when he arrived in munich, he wasn't expecting to leave so soon, after just three years. But he felt worn down from endless clashes with management, scouts, team-managers and doctors. He was brought in to establish *his* way of coaching, and then he constantly had to fight for every bit of change.
The next coach Ancelotti will be less uncompromising. Some of Peps innovations may be reversed. Whether this does any good to the teams success is yet to be seen.
"Der Hausmeister hätte das nicht geschafft" (german) ("The greenkeeper wouldn't have achieved this")
The article joins the discussion about what the record is of Peps spell in munich. Was it a failure, because "even the greenkeeper would have won 3 BL titles" with that team? And will Bayerns dominance continue?.
The author makes a few interesting points. He says that the Bayern team of 2016 is actually inferior to that of 2013. After thinking "what the..?!", i reconsidered. He might actually have a point here. The class of the teamplay imroved, the individual quality went down a bit. Players like Robben, Ribery, Alonso or even Lahm have passed their zenith, and their successors like Coman, Costa, Kimmich or even Alaba don't have the class yet the former had a few years ago. The only world class addition was Lewandowski. Who is on a position i don't consider *that* crucial for Bayern.
That Bayern played football at the same level as they did 2013 is due to Peps "system football", the author claims. I agree.
Interesting sidenote: There was another article about Pep a couple of days ago. Allegedly he said that, when he arrived in munich, he wasn't expecting to leave so soon, after just three years. But he felt worn down from endless clashes with management, scouts, team-managers and doctors
. He was brought in to establish *his* way of coaching, and then he constantly had to fight for every bit of change.The next coach Ancelotti will be less uncompromising. Some of Peps innovations may be reversed. Whether this does any good to the teams success is yet to be seen.
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The best thing I can say about Pep is that Bayern will probably not see the kind of consistency in the domestic League again.
It is unfair to judge a man on such a difficult competition to win, where one off games can ruin a seasons work.
It is unfair to judge a man on such a difficult competition to win, where one off games can ruin a seasons work.
interesting read in "die Zeit" about Bayern and the Pep era.
"Der Hausmeister hätte das nicht geschafft" (german) ("The greenkeeper wouldn't have achieved this")
The article joins the discussion about what the record is of Peps spell in munich. Was it a failure, because "even the greenkeeper would have won 3 BL titles" with that team? And will Bayerns dominance continue?.
The author makes a few interesting points. He says that the Bayern team of 2016 is actually inferior to that of 2013. After thinking "what the..?!", i reconsidered. He might actually have a point here. The class of the teamplay imroved, the individual quality went down a bit. Players like Robben, Ribery, Alonso or even Lahm have passed their zenith, and their successors like Coman, Costa, Kimmich or even Alaba don't have the class yet the former had a few years ago. The only world class addition was Lewandowski. Who is on a position i don't consider *that* crucial for Bayern.
That Bayern played football at the same level as they did 2013 is due to Peps "system football", the author claims. I agree.
Interesting sidenote: There was another article about Pep a couple of days ago. Allegedly he said that, when he arrived in munich, he wasn't expecting to leave so soon, after just three years. But he felt worn down from endless clashes with management, scouts, team-managers and doctors
The next coach Ancelotti will be less uncompromising. Some of Peps innovations may be reversed. Whether this does any good to the teams success is yet to be seen.
Alaba might be the most underrated footballer in the world, if people think he´s not better than Coman, Kimmich or Costa. Alaba is very close to the others like Lahm, Alonso and Ribery, if not on their level. He´s still 23 years old.
Besides Pep made a lot of crucial mistakes in big matches, the back three idea against Barcelona, where they should have conceded 3-4 goals in the opening 20 minutes. Playing a high line against a Real Madrid team that loves to hit teams on the break with DiMaria, Bale and Ronaldo. Not playing Mueller in the opening leg against Atletico. His biggest achievement was probably holding off a resurgent Dortmund side this year. He´s like Loew. Always overthinking shit to get credit for doing something special, instead of just doing the obvious and letting the quality of the players do the talk and work.
I don't get why the defensive idea he tried against Barcelona is seen as a huge mistake. They were ravaged with injuries, he was playing against the world's best front three so decided to try something unorthodox.
It didn't work, but playing a standard defence wouldn't have worked either. Just the usual I guess, people looking at the end result rather than the logic behind the decision.
It didn't work, but playing a standard defence wouldn't have worked either. Just the usual I guess, people looking at the end result rather than the logic behind the decision.
You need to remember that he has achieved incredible amount of success already and how that affects his hunger for simply winning. So whilst others at his age might still be trying to win titles and CL etc, he has 6 titles and 2 CLs in 8 years of management. He probably thinks he has won enough and now wants to win Things his way.
It almost worked were the Bayern players finishing better! Still one of the best games I've watched in recent history.
(Another standout being a Europa league game between Sevilla and someone last season. Big challenges, super high tempo, goals, penalties, incredible individual/team play... It had the lot).
Well if he wanted a challenge, he got one with City now.
Lots of talent for the opposing half in Aguero, Silva, KDB, Sterling and Nachos, but their defensive midfield and backfour is a mess.So, Hummels seems to be about to sign and Renato Sanchez has just been signed! We're doing stuff! More midfield! Can we please get rid of Alonso now?