The vastness of the Munich arena and the dramaturgy after the final whistle led to a struggle for the sovereignty of interpretation. On the one hand: Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel, he gave an interview on the pitch. On the other side: club boss Jan-Christian Dreesen, who appeared in front of the press in the catacombs of the stadium. Almost at the same time as Tuchel. The question after both statements is: Was the separation from Tuchel announced last week really “amicable”, as FC Bayern’s press release wanted to suggest? Or was it completely different, more along the lines of: Eat or die, Thomas!? In any case, Tuchel and Dreesen provided quite different versions.
That was indicated. Because the 50-year-old coach had already given the impression on Friday that his exit in the summer was more one-sided than mutually desired – and probably not the “result of an amicable conversation”, as it was described. He said he was “not sure if there was an option for me to decide that.” On Saturday evening, when the Munich team, with a bit of luck, fought their way to a 2-1 win against RB Leipzig thanks to a goal from Harry Kane in stoppage time, Tuchel was available to answer questions on the Sky channel.
The reporter asked him whether he wouldn’t have liked to have continued, and whether his imminent resignation was driven by the club rather than the understanding on both sides that things couldn’t go on like this for much longer. “I’m stumped,” replied Tuchel, who, as a reminder, was given the relevant information that his contract would have run until the summer of 2025. “Then you answered it yourself,” he replied.
From this it could certainly be deduced that he still saw his future with Bayern, but that his view was blocked by Dreesen. Sky wanted to know that Dreesen had given Tuchel a choice: either immediate dismissal or farewell in the summer. Tuchel did not want to comment on this and referred to the confidentiality obligation of the conversation with Dreesen.
“If there was a clear culprit, someone else would be sitting here today.”
The separation at the end of the season is a done deal. After clarifying the tricky situation, FC Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel also sees an opportunity and takes a clear position.
In ZDF’s “Current Sports Studio” he continued to make people sit up and take notice. Hand on heart, the reporter wanted to know from him whether it was really a joint decision. Tuchel grinned and then answered meaningfully that he would not give any details about the one-on-one conversation, “but I am still an employee. And as employees, they don’t always have all the options, they don’t always have all the trump cards in their hands.” The aim was to “avoid a lurching course”.
FC Bayern players were surprised by Tuchel’s exit
Meanwhile, Dreesen insisted on the version that he had published on Wednesday. “We said that together. If he hadn’t been of the same opinion, we wouldn’t have said together in a press release that we were parting ways amicably.” As a reminder, Tuchel was quoted as saying that “we have agreed to end our collaboration after this season. Until then, I and my coaching team will of course continue to do everything we can to ensure maximum success.” What is clear is that the players were surprised when they were informed of the club management’s decision. This is what Bayern’s sports director Christoph Freund reported on Saturday evening.
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The bottom line is that it’s about not losing any more reputation than is already the case. That shines through. Tuchel doesn’t want to appear as a weak coach who couldn’t handle a team of top-class players and therefore had to give up. “I can’t imagine,” he said, “that an Aleksandar Pavlovic would be happy or relieved that I was retiring at the end of the season. Or a Raphaël Guerreiro, Minjae Kim or Manuel Neuer. I would be very, very surprised if I were the backpack they carry around with them.”
Dreesen, on the other hand, obviously doesn’t want to serve as the club boss, where the coaching chair can now easily be used as an ejection seat and whose club hasn’t provided poor Tuchel with a team capable of winning. There is no sacrifice, even if one is sacrificed soon. That is his message. In any case, Dreesen emphasized that FC Bayern has “an excellent team. I don’t think it’s appropriate to keep talking about the team again. We have excellent quality.”
The lesson of this season? There needs to be a change
Some “very, very good transfers” were made: “I would like to remind you that we not only brought in a world-class striker in Harry Kane, but also one of the best central defenders in Minjae Kim. So I can’t see that we did anything bad in the transfer summer. Quite the opposite.” That means: We’ve done our homework, who else?
Tuchel has at least shown that the team is still following him, and the win against pursuers Leipzig can serve as proof of this. Bayern didn’t shine, but won again after three defeats. Tuchel can be “proud and satisfied,” said football expert Lothar Matthäus: “The team believed in themselves and played very well in the first half. They were a bit defensive in the second half, Leipzig applied pressure and deserved to equalize. In the last five minutes, Bayern’s will decided this game.”
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At Bayern, however, they also came to the realization that this difficult season in Munich could also cause a change in the star ensemble – beyond the coach. Club president Herbert Hainer hinted at this. “We have to sit down and analyze at the end of the season. “What’s going on, why aren’t we playing so well, is it just the coach or do we have to change something in the team too,” he said.
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The first step towards this is already taking place today. The Bayern supervisory board will wave Max Eberl through, and he will start as sports director on Tuesday. So Eberl probably has to build a new team – and find the dream coach. They’ve already found him, it’s probably Leverkusen’s coach Xabi Alonso. Eberl has already tried to lure the coaching talent of the second team from San Sebastián to Gladbach in 2021. It failed. Eberl saw great things in Alonso, but Alonso didn’t see great things in Gladbach. Maybe things are different now with Bayern Munich – it probably depends on the interpretation.