The heavyweights of the locker room who judged Nagelsmann at Bayern Munich

Last Thursday, a bomb exploded in Munich. Bayern’s board of directors waived the favors Julian Nagelsman in front of the Bavarian team. The decision that the leaders of the Munich team declared to be purely sporting. However, daily Bildthe same one who anticipated the departure and arrival of the young German coach Thomas Tuchelrevealed on Monday the reasons for Nagelsmann’s sudden dismissal as Bayern coach, a measure that has more weight in the non-sporting than in the purely footballing component.

It all started with the leaking of information about his tactics to the press. Nagelsmann accused a mole in the dressing room of betraying the group. “The person broadcasting this is insulting the players. I don’t understand what you are looking for. I don’t see what his motivation could be, except to make the task easier for the opponent,” said the former coach of the Teutons. This situation already suggested that his relationship with the heavyweights and the professional staff of the Bavarian club is not the best.

In addition, according to information from the German media, as many as seven important football players in the locker room turned their backs on Nagelsmann. Those players weren Sadio Mané, Leroy Sané, Gnabry, Jamal Musiala, Manuel Neuer, Sven Ulreich and Joao Cancelo. The latter is particularly surprising, as he arrived as a star player for Bayern in January and his participation was negligible.

Both Neuer and Ulreich, the Bayern goalkeepers, would be upset by the dismissal of Tapalović, the German club’s goalkeeping coach, who had been with the club for several years, a decision that Nagelsmann called incomprehensible.

Not the entire locker room was against the young coach of the Teutons. Players like Müller, Kimmich or Goretzka are not included in this blacklist. The latter two, moreover, recently stated that they were against Nagelsmann’s dismissal, attributing it solely to sporting criteria.

The results didn’t help either.

The defeat to Bayer Leverkusen, in addition to all the extra-sport conflicts, buried the leaders of Bayern when it was necessary to remove Nagelsmann from the Munich bench. Second in the Bundesliga, just a point behind Dortmund, but with the feeling that he is not dominating the competition as before. Two defeats in their last five league games, which has seen chasers Unión Berlin and Freiburg close in on second place.

In Champions, the situation is different. Placement in the quarter-finals and eight wins out of eight possible. The results in the European competition did not serve to maintain a situation that is hardly sustainable due to the series of conflicts that were involved. Tuchel now has an important ballot in Munich.