Giovane Elber calls for more patience for Julian Nagelsmann at Bayern Munich

For the majority of Bayern Munich fans, there are currently two planes of thinking when it comes to Julian Nagelsmann. In one camp, his maiden season in charge of the club is considered somewhat of a failure given both the DFB-Pokal and Champions League exits, but in the other camp, there’s a way of thinking that calls for more patience for the former TSG Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig manager. He’s just secured Bayern’s 10th straight Bundesliga title with a better points tally and goal differential than Hansi Flick’s team had at this stage last season and with three match weeks to spare.

FC Bayern legend Giovane Elber recently explained how he’s in the camp of feeling that people need to show more patience with Nagelsmann. “He’s a good coach. I hope he’ll be successful with us for a long time to come. You have to give him time,” he recently told SPOX (via Abendzeitung).

At face value, this season was always going to be tricky to navigate for Nagelsmann. Even though he brought both Dayot Upamecano and Marcel Sabitzer with him from Leipzig as well as most of his coaching staff, there were still voids left from last season. Replacing veteran players like David Alaba, Jerome Boateng and Javi Martinez and how much they meant to Bayern is no easy feat, by any standard. There was always going to be very difficult groundwork for Nagelsmann in that sense.

On top of the trio of veteran players leaving, much like Hansi Flick’s tenure in charge, Nagelsmann had to deal with a plethora of injuries, COVID infections and suspensions numerous times throughout the course of the season. Not that any of those criterion are excusable reasons for falling short in both the domestic and European cup exits, but they didn’t make Nagelsmann’s job, which is already constantly under the microscope, any easier.

Oliver Kahn and Herbert Hainer have both rigorously spoken about navigating through the financial losses as a result of the pandemic, especially as tension has grown surrounding the contact situations of Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer, and Serge Gnabry. In the same vein as Nagelsmann, Elber also feels that Kahn should be given some time as Bayern CEO, taking over for Karl-Heinz Rummenigge after such a sustained period of success. “He is already making his points of view clear. Oli is in a new role and has to find his way around first. He follows in the big footsteps of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and also a Uli Hoeneß,” Elber rationalized.