Report: Bayern Munich wants to wait until May to confirm Hansi Flick, but will he wait?

According to a new report by Sport Bild, Bayern Munich have still not offered interim coach Hansi Flick a permanent contract. The bosses want to wait until May to make a decision about his future, but this has not gone down well with the coach. Flick apparently has already received a number of job offers and is no longer willing to return to the assistant coach’s position next season.

The situation

The report by Sport Bild has a lot of info that can get overwhelming at times, so let’s break it down:

• Bayern Munich need a permanent head coach for the 2020/21 season. Current interim Hansi Flick is considered the front-runner for the job, but he has yet to receive a contract offer from the Bavarians.
• A little while ago, Bayern president Herbert Hainer told the media that the future of the coach would not be decided until the end of the season, in May. According to Sport Bild, this declaration surprised Hansi Flick, who had not been told anything of the sort.
• As per previous reports, Bayern Munich will wait until after the club’s Champions League tie against Chelsea before extending the contracts of key players such as Thomas Muller, David Alaba, and Thiago Alcantara. Sport Bild claims that the fact that Flick himself is excluded from this condition apparently makes him feel unappreciated by the bosses.
• In the winter break, the bosses made Flick wait until the very last moment before confirming him as coach for rest of the season. That also is supposedly weighing on Hansi’s mind.
• Flick has numerous coaching offers from other clubs, and he will consider them if Bayern does not give him the job. Sport Bild does not tell us who these clubs are, but there are plenty of teams in Germany and around Europe that wouldn’t mind having his expertise on their side, especially in light of his results thus far with Bayern.
• Flick has decided that he will not go back to being an assistant manager next season, he wants to continue his career as a head coach.
• Flick and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic supposedly do not have the best of relationships at the moment, owing to the public dispute between the two during the winter break over January transfers. Unlike Hainer and Rummenigge, both of whom have publicly backed Flick for the permanent job, Brazzo has failed to do so. Sport Bild reports tensions between the two of them behind the scenes.
• Flick’s move to get the team’s top players together and have them advocate the signing of Douglas Costa from Juventus helped him win the support of the squad but annoyed the club leadership. The coach’s relationship with the players is very strong, which helps his case for the permanent job.

• Brazzo wanted to get former Tottenham Hotpsur coach Mauricio Pochettino for the job, but he does not have the support of the rest of the board. Other candidates like Jürgen Klopp and Julian Nagelsmann are considered unavailable. This leaves Flick as the most likely person to be in charge of Bayern next summer, unless the club fails to get past Chelsea in the Champions League.

That’s all the relevant info from the Sport Bild report.

BFW Analysis

Behind-the-scenes tensions are the last thing you want to hear about as a fan of Bayern Munich. The reports of a poor relationship between Brazzo and Flick are the most worrying part of Sport Bild’s report, as you can’t have the Sporting Director and the coach on different wavelengths — that only leads to disaster.

As for the bosses’ decision to wait until the end of the season, it’s perfectly understandable why they want to do so. Last year, Manchester United chose to pull the trigger on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after their amazing victory over PSG in the Champions League, and their results immediately took a turn for the worst. It makes sense why Bayern would want to avoid a situation like that, even if Flick has proved himself far more astute that OGS did in his stint as interim.

In the meantime, it’s understandable why Flick feels annoyed by the wait. Both Ottmar Hitzfeld and Jupp Heynckes called for the bosses to pull the trigger ASAP, so coach and the players can concentrate fully on the remainder of the season. Hansi Flick may feel that the bosses’ wait-and-see approach jeopardizes his goals for the team and his ambitions as coach.

It’s an uncomfortable situation to be in, but thankfully Flick seems to be likes by the bosses that aren’t Brazzo, and he has a good relationship with the players as well. As long as results remain positive, there’s not reason that the club can’t find a simple solution to the coaching situation that satisfies all parties. It’s just a question of how long it’ll take.