The timeline that led to Hansi Flick’s resignation from Bayern Munich — Part 1: At odds early on

According to a report from Bild, the rift between Bayern Munich manager Hansi Fick and sporting director Hasan “Brazzo” Salihamidzic dates back to very early in Flick’s tenure.

Lets take a stroll through the timeline of how we got to this point...

January 8, 2020: In an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung said he felt like the team needed at least two players, which rubbed Salihamidzic the wrong way.

Photo by Chloe Knott - Danehouse/Getty Images

January 9, 2020: Salihamidzic issued a public statement: “I was surprised by this media squad planning that Hansi did. I’m simply not a friend of media squad planning.” This back-and-forth prompted Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to make a call to Qatar — where the team was holding training camp — and ask what exactly was going on between the two men

January 11, 2020: Flick and Salihamidzic had a meeting before the team’s friend with 1. FC Nürnberg.

January 15, 2020: Salihamidzic gave an interview with Sport Bild to discuss his vision for the roster. One of players Salihamidzic ruled out, was former RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner — a player Flick wanted as part of the team. Flick reportedly was irritated with the statements. Sport Bild indicated that Salihamidzic made the statements as a way to push the board for Leroy Sané rather than Werner. (Editor’s note: Why not both?)

January 22, 2020: Flick did not get the two or three players that he allegedly wanted. Instead, Flick got Real Madrid loanee Álvaro Odriozola. While Bild maliciously slandered “Goat-riozola” by saying he never played a role with Bayern Munich, the Spaniard was a treble-winner nonetheless.

(Editor’s note: Flick and Brazzo clearly already do not agree on much of anything, have already irritated each other, and it’s really only been about a month into their tenure together).

Part 1 Analysis

A lot of people — and I mean a lot — will point to the fact that Flick wanted Werner and say, “See! See! Flick should just stick to coach and let Brazzo do the heavy lifting with roster planning!”

I will offer this counter-argument, though: We have no idea what Flick would have done with Werner, nor do we know exactly how he would have deployed him. Coaches have specific ideas for players and I trust that Flick would have found a way to successfully deploy Werner, just like he found a way to work with Sané in a (relatively) successful manner.

If everyone remembers, the fee for Werner to go to Bayern was at roughly €30 million — a steep discount from what Chelsea paid.

As for how much impact a coach can have on the direction of a player’ career...just look at Thomas Müller’s stint under Carlo Ancelotti (afterthought) and Niko Kovac (also ran). Clearly, Flick’s plan for Müller worked. Could he have done the same with Werner at Bayern Munich? We’ll never know.

And let’s face it, right now, Bayern Munich is paying more for what Sané could be than what he is. The finished product that many thought would arrive in Bavaria is not quite there. In fact, there is A LOT of work that Sané needs to do.

In the end, neither man was wrong in his position about who each wanted, but it was also clear that Brazzo was going to use his political weight and leverage to not only get who he wanted — without much consultation of the manager.