While this isn’t quite the situation going on at Palermo, where a manager can be fired and rehired three times in less than six months, but it’s weird to see the relationship between Jupp Heynckes, on his third tenure with Bayern Munich, being treated like an interim manager and nothing more.
A man who has lead a team to win the Champions League as underdogs (Real Madrid vs Juventus in 1998) and is leading Bayern Munich on one of the most dominant campaigns ever in the Bundesliga doesn’t have a job for next year with the team he’s doing it with. Yes, Pep Guardiola is the sexier name, and a lot of what is going on with Bayern isn’t just because Heynckes is a good head coach, but about the ability of his board to bring in the right players and keep a steady ship after two years (ages in Bayern terms) without a league title.
But Heynckes led them to the Champions League final, and if it wasn’t for Arjen Robben, he’d probably be a defending European and possibly German champion in 2013. Oh well, it’ll have to wait, maybe with both of them, till next season.
Bayern know they’ve done Heynckes wrong with the Pep ordeal, but with the opportunity to expand their global brand, they decided to throw Heynckes under the bus. That’s the sport, that’s the business, but Heynckes has been hurt more than he’s been letting on. Hearing about a front office job offered to him through the media instead of personally didn’t really help mend his quarrels with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and the rest of the gang.
It would have been better if they had approached me first. I am not interested in the job. Even more so, when I only hear about it from the media. My club, that’s Borussia Monchengladbach, offered me the vice-president job a while ago. I also turned that down. After 50 years as player and coach I will not become a functionary, I think.
Bayern tried a peace offering, and it blew in their faces. Nothing, it seems, will shake the ship as it is on course for a third Champions League final in four seasons, hopefully this time being “the one.” The players seem unaffected by the whole ordeal up to this point – they know who’s writing the checks, and where the real power of Bayern resides.
Heynckes may be disrespected a tad, but Bayern’s quality and strength most of the time comes from their road and approach, and not an individual on the sidelines. It might be insulting for Heynckes to realize that, but it’s pretty much the truth.