Bayern's sporting director on shaky grounds

FC Bayern Munich expectedly defended the throne in Germany and in about ten days will have the chance to complete a domestic double, but despite that, there is still a bitter taste left because of the failure in the Champions League semifinal against Paris Saint-Germain. When the season is summed up, it will probably be judged as successful — the club’s leadership is especially pleased with the promotion of several academy players, above all Lenart Karl — yet there are still dissatisfied voices within the club hierarchy when it comes to the overall impression.

At one point — or more precisely, after Uli Hoeness made a statement around twenty days ago — it seemed that everything at Bayern was finally functioning perfectly, that every segment of the club had been organized into a flawless mechanism. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an old topic returned to the headlines: Max Eberl. Is he doing a good job? Where is he making mistakes? Will he remain in his position?

“What impressed me the most about this title? There were many good things, it’s not easy to single one out... But I’d say I’m happiest with the unity. I don’t think we’ve ever had something like this at the club. There’s nothing even remotely resembling cliques. And this doesn’t only apply to the players and coaching staff, but to the entire club. The medical department, the administration, the people in management — especially Max Eberl and Christoph Freund”

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These words from Uli Hoeness came just days before the trip to Paris for the first leg against PSG. It really looked like everything had finally fallen into place, and then, the German media announced that Bayern’s Supervisory Board will hold its quarterly meeting, during which there will be talks about potential contract extensions for CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen, sporting director Christoph Freund, and board member for sport Max Eberl. They also noted that the first two extension are all but agreed, but not Eberl’s. Some time ago, many predicted that Eberl’s three-year mandate could end after just three transfer windows. Those discussions quieted down because of the exceptional performances of Vincent Kompany’s team, driven by signings Eberl brought in — Michael Olise and Luis Díaz. Still, the Munich idyll lasted only a few months…

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Whether there is a concrete reason for reopening questions about the quality of the sporting director’s work right now is unknown. What is certain is that the exact same accusations from before are once again being raised against him. Number one — excessively high salaries for players whose contracts were renewed (Jamal Musiala, Joshua Kimmich, Dayot Upamecano); number two — repeated unilateral actions during negotiations with potential signings; number three — a lack of a healthy approach to resolving conflicts with colleagues. Germany’s SPORT1 writes that the Supervisory Board believes Eberl is too soft in negotiations with agents, who can sway him too easily. Instead of improving in that regard, people internally say he is unnecessarily too accommodating in his relationships with players’ representatives. The same source states that Eberl will not be fired immediately because there are still people on the Supervisory Board who believe he deserves another chance. What is especially interesting is that part of the Supervisory Board blames Eberl for poorly handling negotiations over Florian Wirtz and Nick Woltemade, citing that as the reason Bayern missed out on the two attacking players. Another faction, meanwhile, believes it was irresponsible to enter those negotiations in the first place and to be so “careless with spending money.

Ultimately, it may also be fair to ask whether Max Eberl, after everything, will even want to stay once his contract expires — assuming he is not dismissed beforehand — considering the pressure he has worked under and the number of “mentors” around him since day one. If the line were drawn today, there is no doubt that from a sporting perspective the grade would be fairly good. Alongside the transfers of Olise and Díaz, Bayern also brought in Jonathan Tah and Tom Bischof on free transfers, as well as goalkeeper Jonas Urbig for a relatively small fee. Vincent Kompany was not Eberl’s idea. There have been failures too, to be fair — and not small ones. First and foremost on that list would be Joao Palhinha, Bryan Zaragoza, and Hiroki Ito. What particularly upset people on the Supervisory Board was the size of the loan fee paid for Nicolas Jackson — more than 15 million euros. All of this will be measured when Eberl’s work is judged.