With such personality, maybe if you go to Tottenham Hotspur, then you will fit in given the narratives that has surrounded the club. The infamous line ‘it’s in the history of the Tottenham’ said life to by former Juventus and Italy international defender, Georgio Chiellini.
Whatever transpired between Bayern Munich and 35-year-old Julian Nagelsmann is surely not only down to infield issues or performances.
Albeit these has also played their roles, it is obvious there is more that has not unfold in the speech of the Bayern hierarchy, with Nagelsmann still yet to say much about it.
According to information gathered, man management played a significant role in the failure of the former RB Leipzig manager in Munich, due to his personality, which does not really fit into that of a team with top players.
Leadership qualities are etiquette required to manage at top level. It has to be learned and well applied, even so far a young manager, in the midst of players who probably have more years than you (the coach) in the game.
Football players are humans and not robots. They can be controlled but also have their own sense to reason, and almost everyone has that feeling to rebel, if circumstances continues to play out of their favour.
His relationship with the players was not encouraging. A part of the squad, mostly the reserved players felt neglected, while little to no chances were afforded to the youth players.
In the summer, Bayern Munich signed two of the hottest youngsters in Europe in Mathys Tel and Ryan Gravenberch. Neither of them did Nagelsmann gave a run in the team despite their potentials.
Nagelsmann was criticized of only communicating with the starters, leaving the reserved players with no sense of belonging. He, apparently did not have the dressing room, contrary to the confession of Leon Goretzka.
During the time of Nagelsmann, there was neglect of young talent. They only had contact with assistants Dino Topmöller and Xaver Zembrod, which was even on rare occasions.
The board considers that, except for Jamal Musiala, who had already been introduced by Hansi Flick, no youngster has gained space since the appointment of Nagelsmann.
The likes of Paul Warner and Arijon Ibrahimovic are two of the bright talents from the club’s Academy but have not been given real chance in the first team. This made the Academy felt disconnected from the first team.
Nagelsmann has also been question of his tactics, though he is good at it but found it difficult to manage the cast. He is fond of continually changing the style of play, and doing this, you don’t always get it right.
Bayern had planned to let him continue until the end of the season but the club had had enough of him when he surprisingly went skiing on vacation while the team had to train on that FIFA date. Internally, this was a very negative sign.
He was let off his duties soon after and it was later communicated to him. He is currently under a payroll till he finds himself a new job.
However, several reports have been linking him with Tottenham, Real Madrid and Chelsea, with fans of these teams already excited at the potential of their team hiring him.
However, despite him being a good coach, which he has proven in RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich, there are still question marks over his ability to manage an elite team, hence, the reason his lost his job at Bayern.
Similar situation as the one Nagelsmann complained at Bayern had happened in Real Madrid, in Carlo Ancelotti’s first season when the club let leave the center back pair for almost a decade, in Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane.
In response, Carlo Ancelotti went on to win the Champions League and the league double even though the club did not really get direct replacement for the two.
The Italian also had his complains as well, which has contributed to reasons of the hot air between himself and the club all season but where it mattered, he has delivered. Of course except lately, against Barcelona.
The character Nagelsmann showed in Bayern isn’t one that can be condoned by top teams because in top teams, there are top players, some even bigger than the manager. He surely has to realize he is no more in Leipzig or Hoffenheim.
Tottenham may choose to hire him but that will be as though setting themselves up for another disaster as Nagelsmann’s situation is similar to that of Conte.
The Italian was also found of fault when he called the players for a meeting in the Tottenham Hotspur headquarters back in January, with a theme of finding solution to the poor performances.
Conte reportedly told the players to find a solution to their poor form and left the room. He was also too outspoken for a true leader in his most recent interviews.
Finding a new club should not be too tough for Nagelsmann given his credentials but elite teams do have to rethink making such decision as hiring him, because it takes more than tactical know-how to manage at top level.
Author : Kehinde Hassan Afolabi
2 Comments
You know ball
Nice one OLT