Why Bayern Munich sacked Julian Nagelsmann

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Why Bayern Munich sacked Julian Nagelsmann

FC Bayern Munich is a storied institution with unwritten rules woven into the tapestry of the club's trophy-laden history.

Alongside using the formal 'Sie' to address your superiors, smiling when forced into lederhosen at Oktoberfest and always winning the Bundesliga, perhaps the club need to confiscate any skis and poles upon arrival in Bavaria.

Julian Nagelsmann was in the Austrian alps when his family ski trip was soured with the news that he would no longer be the manager of the club he grew up supporting. Just a few months prior, Bayern's captain Manuel Neuer broke his leg whizzing down the slopes after Germany had tumbled out of the World Cup group stage once again.

Going into the Qatar tournament, Bayern were four points clear at the top of the Bundesliga on the back of a ten-match winning run. The perennial German champions have dropped 12 points in 2023 yet remain within touching distance of league leaders Borussia Dortmund - who they face on 1 April - and are poised to compete in the quarter-finals of the DFB Pokal and the Champions League.

So, less than two years after Bayern paid a world-record €25m fee to secure Nagelsmann's signature, why have they consigned his tenure to scrapheap with Thomas Tuchel set to take over?

Five days before Nagelsmann was ushered out of the back door, Bayern's president Herbert Hainer offered little evidence that the 35-year-old was on the brink of the sack. "I think Julian has come a long way," Hainer told the German publication Kicker.

"A top coach who also proved against Paris that he is tactically and strategically excellent at the highest European level. We recognised that with a five-year contract because we want to build something with him."

Hainer referenced Bayern's two-legged victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round of 16, a convincing and composed triumph in which the Bavarians were comfortably superior for at least 160 of the tie's 180 minutes - making his subsequent departure all the more bizarre. Bayern are the only side in this season's Champions League to have won every match, defeating Inter, Barcelona and PSG while keeping seven clean sheets along the way.

Bayern followed up their European progression with a chaotic 5-3 win over Augsburg before skulking into the March international break on the back of a 2-1 reverse away to Bayer Leverkusen. It was the club's third league defeat of the season, their second of the new year, but the manner of the loss was what proved most troublesome for the club's top brass.

Only Pep Guardiola, Hansi Flick and Carlo Ancelotti averaged more Bundesliga points than Nagelsmann during their tenures but events on the pitch are not the only defining factor in his departure.