This article is adapted from the business magazine Capital and is available here for ten days. Afterwards it will only be available to read at www.capital.de. Like stern, Capital belongs to RTL Deutschland.
Mr. Golz, Ralf Rangnick, the fourth coach at FC Bayern, canceled this week. You have played 453 Bundesliga games and are now a personnel consultant. Explain to us: Why is it so difficult for Bayern to find a new coach? First of all, a personnel consultancy is different from hiring a coach. There are usually two problems in football compared to personnel consulting: time and publicity. Bayern has to find a quick solution to the open coaching position and the issue is being discussed in public, which increases the pressure and potentially provokes bad decisions. We are seeing that now – and it is an extremely difficult situation. On the other hand, I believe that one or two candidates cleverly took advantage of the situation, which also happens in personnel consulting.
What do you mean? It’s no coincidence that the coaching discussion is so open. This is unlikely to come from FC Bayern, although it turns out to be a disadvantage that so many club representatives have spoken out in public. For the other side, be it the coaches or their advisors, there are huge advantages to using Bayern’s interest for themselves. Unai Emery contract and Julian Nagelsmann have extended their contracts in a very favorable situation for them.
How will Bayern get out of this situation? It will get more difficult with every rejection. Yes, and no. Yes, there is only a small circle of top coaches and some of them have taken advantage of the situation, as described. So it won’t get any easier if the circle gets smaller. At the same time, however, FC Bayern remains a very interesting club for every coach and at this level it is not unusual not to appear to be the first choice. Bayern will most likely not be left without a coach.
But again: how do you convince a coach who, from the outside, only sees pure chaos? Bayern must now prevent further information from leaking out, gather themselves together, identify the remaining candidates and point out in the talks that the deal is dead as soon as details become public.
Is that realistic? That is the question. So far that has obviously not been the case. That’s why in such situations people often look for internal solutions or veteran trainers who like the constellation with a manageable period of time. The Jupp Heynckes guy, for example, even if he certainly won’t.
Can you think of a name? That’s pure speculation that I don’t want to take part in, but I can imagine that a transition coach is now being sought for a clearly defined period of time.
The name Louis van Gaal has already been thrown into the ring. There are not that many candidates, so no solution should be ignored and there may still be candidates on the market when the season is over everywhere.
What kind of profile does a trainer need who wants to enter this environment? Profile is the right keyword. In my opinion, the most important quality is personality, especially in order to attract all the stars to Bayern. For me, personality comes just before technical expertise.
Can a big name and character like Zinedine Zidane make up for the damage caused by the cancellations? I don’t want to speculate about names and the extent of any damage, but FC Bayern is still a very attractive club.
Regardless of who becomes coach at FC Bayern from July 1st. How do you as a player view the current situation – and how do you approach the new coach from July?Completely normal. The players are currently extremely focused on the Champions League and as long as Bayern are still in the competition, they don’t have to present a new coach to the players. After the season, things will be different, especially if you want to sign new players. But from my own experience, I can say: as a player, you shouldn’t change because of the coach, because that can change quickly in professional football, and most players don’t really care how a coach came to the club.
