“Summer must be a bad boy”

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Uli Hoeness (71), FC Bayern’s doer for years, marches past the waiting journalists after the Champions League away match against ManCity. Is he satisfied despite his departure? “Joooa,” Hoeness replies, but looks around as if planning a public angry speech in Sunday’s “double pass.”

No, Hoeness cannot be satisfied. All in all, no chance in the quarter-finals against the hated nouveau riche club from the English northwest. Out in the DFB Cup against the small SC Freiburg. And with Julian Nagelsmann, the coach ported by Hoeness was fired – and the transfer cost 20 million euros.

All this is the responsibility of Hoeness’s successors. Oliver Kahn, the CEO and Hassan Salihamidzic, the sports director. Both are former professionals, both seem completely overwhelmed – and are drawing the wrath of the fans. “Heroes of the past, whistles of today,” reads a banner.

Joshua Kimmich, who wears the bandage in the absence of injured captain Manuel Neuer, does not want to know that the bosses are to blame for the sporting misery: “The responsibility for leaving the cup and the Champions League lies with us players.”

Does summer come from Neuer’s shadow?

In particular, the French defender Dayot Upamecano has gone wrong several times in recent weeks. But someone else has become the center of criticism: Yann Sommer. Because the Swiss Nati goalie let Rodri’s long shot in the first leg against ManCity pass in the 0:3 and shortly afterwards he didn’t look good in the 1:1 against Hoffenheim. Didi Hamann, the former Bayern star, drove Sommer hardest into the parade and represented many pundits. The goalkeeper was “hopelessly overwhelmed”. “Yann Sommer upsets the team.”

To make matters worse, Bayern has a German national treasure in Manuel Neuer, a five-time world goalkeeper, a world champion and a man who is already a living legend at FC Bayern Munich. A super figure. One like Oliver Kahn or Sepp Maier.

Two icons that have destroyed many a successor. At Kahn, it was Michael Rensing and Thomas Kraft who couldn’t take the pressure. Only Neuer filled the gap. In Maier’s case, it was Walter Junghans and Manfred Müller who failed before Belgian Jean-Marie Pfaff stepped into the breach. He inherited from Sepp Maier – and also became a legend at Bayern.

From flycatcher to legend

The start of Pfaff goes completely wrong. In his very first match he got a rotten egg against. Immediately after a throw-in. A curiosity, unique in the history of the Bundesliga. “The newspapers wrote that I am a flycatcher,” Pfaff recalled. The action was not a mistake, but an accident. “Klaus Augenthaler hit me with his elbow on my elbow, so the ball went in unluckily.”

Despite this slapstick action in the first game, Pfaff prevails. ‘Because I had the will. And because I was not only in goal to save balls, but also to direct my teammates. First they told me to shut up, then they listened.”

A quality that Pfaff lacks in Bayern’s current goalkeeper. “Yann Sommer is a super good goalkeeper, but he still doesn’t talk enough. He has to get the automatisms in, become a bad boy.” This is how you gain respect from your fellow players.

“Summer is not new”

Manuel Neuer, the captain of Bayern, has been committed to this for years. “Yann Sommer is not Manuel Neuer, but he doesn’t have to be. You don’t always have to compare,” says Pfaff.

When he played at Bayern he was always compared to the great Sepp Maier. But he never wanted to replace him. Because he was irreplaceable. It was just an honor to be his successor.”

Will Sommer also succeed Neuer and how will Pfaff shape an era? Possibly, says the old Belgian national goalkeeper. “Yann Sommer is a very good solution for Bayern.” Due to its size, it will certainly not fail, according to Pfaff. At 180 centimeters he was slightly shorter than Sommer, but he still played almost 160 league games for Bayern and became German champion three times. “If you are 160 centimeters tall, you don’t have to be in goal,” Pfaff laughs. In general, a good keeper is not automatically a good keeper.

Will Yann Sommer be a big one at Bayern? The next opportunity to do so is the away game against Mainz on Saturday (kick-off is at 3.30 pm).

Source : Blick