Jurgen Klinsmann
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| Bayern |
As we approach the climax to the season with sides across Europe beginning to know where they are going to end up it always comes as a shock to see a manager depart with such little time remaining.
Especially when that manager is former German international Jurgen Klinsmann and his tenure at his current club has only been eight months. The former Tottenham striker upset the football odds by being forced to leave Germany’s biggest club Bayern Munich following their 1-0 defeat to Schalke despite being only three points off top spot with five games to go.
The situation all seems a little odd, looking on from the outside, when you consider that the season isn’t over and to make a change this late on might not have the desired impact. Bayern’s owners crave success, the fans crave it and most German football fans expect it when you consider how many Bundesliga titles and European Cups the club has won. The record breaking total of 21 league titles will certainly place pressure on whoever is in charge but you get the impression that Bayern’s on the field form was used as an excuse to sack the former German national coach.
Defeat at the weekend was only their seventh loss this season and in what is an incredibly tight Bundesliga that still leaves them in third spot, three points off the top. The real reason for the sacking of Klinsmann appears to be the disapproval over his training methods and the way he handles the players. The 44-year-old is known to be heavily influenced by the training methods he observed of athletes in America, especially the way they psychologically prepared before an event.
Unfortunately for Klinsmann the methods he brought to the club don’t appear to have sat well with the board and it has been reported that Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer disagreed with the way the manager was training the players. Those of you who know your history will already be aware that Beckenbauer had two spells as manager himself. It seems then that the two German legends clashed when it came to the methods being used off the pitch and when push came to shove there was only going to be one winner.
Klinsmann’s sacking is a timely reminder that the manager doesn’t always have complete control over matters on the pitch, a certain Jose Mourinho will tell you all about that. Klinsmann has paid the price for trying something different and despite Beckenbauer being a national legend perhaps he should have taken a step back and seen how the season finished before dropping the axe on a promising young manager in a difficult job.
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