Bayern Munich youth department gets big shake up with two departures

Bayern Munich announced Tuesday morning that Michael Tarnat and Jürgen Jung have both stepped down from their roles as U-16 and under youth coordinator and youth team head scout, respectively. A release from the club cited "differing views on the direction of the youth department" as the reason for their departure.

Tarnat, who played for Bayern from 1997-2003, was the sporting director of the youth department from the 2010/11 season until his demotion and replacement by current Bayern II head coach Heiko Vogel this past summer. He has since been responsible for the teams below the U-16 level. Tarnat's son, Niklas, is a central midfielder for the Bayern U19 and has made 13 appearances for them so far this year (10 in the league, 3 in the UEFA Youth League).

Jürgen Jung had been serving as head of the youth scouting department since 2012.

While it's certainly never great to lose important staff members during the season, this may be a blessing in disguise. The youth department hasn't exactly been "killing it" in recent years, and this will allow them to bring in some more proven men for the job in preparation for the summer when the club may look to add some youngsters to the academy. The club has had trouble in recent years smoothly integrating youth players from the academy into the first team.

Players such as Mehmet Ekici, Sandro Wagner, and in more recent years Vladimir Rankovic and Patrick Weihrauch all showed great potential at one point in their careers, but had trouble establishing themselves in the first team when it came time for them to make the jump. They either had to look elsewhere for first team football (Ekici to Bremen, Wagner to Duisburg, Rankovic to Hannover), or accept permanent Bayern II contracts (Weihrauch). Hopefully that's something that will improve in the coming years, as we haven't seen a youth product integrate as an important member of the first team since David Alaba in the 2011/12 season.

There has been no word on who will fill in for the two while they look for permanent replacements.