An the Easter weekend, FC Bayern Munich, the football club that almost always gets what it wants in Germany, suffered a defeat that is likely to have an impact not only on this season but also on next. But anyone who thinks about the Bundesliga game against Borussia Dortmund, about this very mediocre 0:2 (was that really the same sport that Liverpool and Manchester City played recently?), is not thinking far enough.
From Bayern's point of view, it should be acceptable given the Bundesliga table that the team played without energy and deservedly lost. It should even be bearable that coach Thomas Tuchel once again couldn't explain the lack of energy afterwards, even if that's only bearable because he has to leave the club in the summer anyway.
Because when the members of the supervisory board and the executive board sat in the arena in Munich on Saturday evening and waited for the game to kick off, they already knew of a different result that was harder to cope with than anything that would happen in the next ninety minutes.
“We would have liked to sign him”
Ever since Spanish football coach Xabi Alonso said on Good Friday that he would continue to work in Leverkusen next season, the already complicated challenges for FC Bayern's managers have become significantly more complicated.
On the one hand, it is clear that with Leverkusen they will continue to have their German competitor, who is superior to them in terms of game strategy this season and could be next season too. And on the other hand it is clear – this is the defeat that will remain – that they will not be able to hire the coach that they wanted so much.
When FC Bayern announced the end of the partnership with Tuchel in February and the CEO said that his club was planning “a sporting realignment with a new coach” after this season, it quickly became obvious that Xabi Alonso should be the new coach.
“We would have liked to sign him,” said supervisory board member Uli Hoeneß in an interview with BR last week, in which Alonso announced his decision. Anyone who knows the recent and recent history of his club knows that it is rare for Hoeneß to have to speak in the subjunctive about a commitment he would like to make.
There are a few reasons why it would probably have been a good fit with coach Alonso. Because he used to play for FC Bayern himself. Because his ideal of ball and game control corresponds to the club's ideal. And because – this should not be underestimated – he has the advantage that he, whose native language is not German, can moderate the Bavarian (tabloid) debates in the weekly mandatory press conferences in a different way than Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel, who also attend in Munich their communication failed, they could.
All in all, Alonso's decision says a lot about him, about the strategist who knows that not only a team, but also a coach has to develop. But it also says a little something about FC Bayern, about a football club that is looking for something and is no longer getting what it wants in Germany at the moment.
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