Like most Bayern Munich fans and astute observers of football around the world, I always thought that once the Bavarians had parted ways with Thomas Tuchel, recently relegated Burnley coach and Manchester City alum Vincent Kompany was the obvious choice.
Kidding.
In two years I had watched the club I admired for stable, sound management and long-term thinking pull the plug on a promising project with a young coach (I’m still bitter, Julian Nagelsmann please come back some day) and then sack every executive it could toss a pretzel at. It seemed like all was burning down in Bavaria, Tuchel’s hire and subsequent firing — not firing — wait, could he stay? — ultimately, mutually agreed separation, the latest chapter in the unfolding story of how the Rekordmeister had it all, then threw it all away.
Enter the chaos of a coaching search that would make Tottenham Hotspur, post-Mourinho, blush, and I was ready to spiral.
But what if…what if, hear me out, Kompany is the best thing that could possibly have happened to Bayern in its moment of crisis?
Forget his relative inexperience at the top level. Past stints at Anderlecht and Burnley don’t count for much and draw a sharp contrast to the deliberate way Xabi Alonso is crafting his own coaching journey, staying at Leverkusen at least a year longer than necessary to take on the challenge of a Champions League campaign before biting off more than he could chew. Kompany bit it all…and of a Bayern coach you could ask no less.
At Bayern, boldness comes with the territory. The standards are high but no less than everyone’s ambition, from the players to the board room. Nothing less than big brass ones could satisfy the big brass, or win over the locker room, and Kompany has done just that, all the while playing a style of football that is modern, competent, and pleasing to the eye.
It hasn’t always been pretty. Shaky results and fallow periods in front of goal still prompt fair questions. But look at the way team leader Thomas Müller talks about how this season is going compared to last. Müller, always eagerly professional, rallied the troops around Tuchel. He is positively aglow with praise for Kompany.
Kompany and Bayern are still learning their way around each other. He’s asking a lot of his players, particularly the two center-backs, Kim Min-jae and Dayot Upamecano, who hardly get a rest and need to be inch perfect every game to avoid getting sucker-punched over the top for a goal. But they, and everyone else, are running through a wall for the new coach, evident in a proud Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain and even in a shorthanded DFB-Pokal loss to Bayer Leverkusen, when 10-man Bayern dominated the proceedings despite Manuel Neuer’s early red.
This, coupled with Bayern’s second-half return to health — multiple reinforcements, especially in defense, should help a lot with the remaining fixture schedule — has the makings of a redemptive season in Bavaria. And what better way than to cap it off with a Champions League Finale Dahoam victory in Munich?
Kompany, and Bayern, are hungry and ready. The competition will be fierce. But they’ve got what it takes.
Looking for thoughts and analysis of Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga showdown with Borussia Mönchengladbach? Awesome, then check out the Bavarian Podcast Works — Preview Show on Patreon, Spotify, or below:
