Julian Nagelsmann and the Soul of the Beautiful Game
AN ARTICLE BY MATTY
<As you’ve probably seen, Julian Nagelsmann has been shockingly fired while on holiday by Bayern Munich, replaced by Thomas Tuchel. Nagelsmann reportedly had no knowledge his job was in jeopardy, found out via social media, and Bayern executives weren’t going to say anything to Nagelsmann until tomorrow, when Tuchel would’ve already been in Munich signing the papers to be the new manager. I don’t know why this situation in particular irks me, perhaps it’s because I still looked at Bayern as a club with honor and respect. It feels weird, I don’t particularly like Nagelsmann as a manager but even I can stand up for him here and say he got a raw deal.
Alas, it appears modernity has captured another victim in the football world, the bastion of German football becoming another soulless husk of a club where the players and coaches are no longer viewed as humans but as interchangeable cogs in the machine. If you aren’t winning everything possible, then it isn’t good enough and you must be replaced with someone who can. Bayern were one point behind Dortmund in the Bundesliga, had just beaten PSG in the Champions League, and looked near unbeatable in cups both domestic and abroad. Still wasn’t good enough. Imagine if Liverpool had that mentality, Klopp would’ve been fired long ago for losing a Champions League final, or losing the Premier League by a single point, or managing both feats again within a single season. Sounds ridiculous, right? There’s a difference between a winning mentality and winning at all costs. It appears in recent times we’ve gone from “winning is everything” to “winning is the only thing”.
Fans no longer have loyalty to anything other than the club. The players and coaches do not matter as long as the wins keep coming in. And if they don’t? Well, then it’s time to sack the manager, bin off some players and get back to winning. Problem is that unless you buy the right players you get a United situation where they spent the last decade wandering aimlessly, throwing cash at anything that moved and building an expensive underachieving squad. But that doesn’t matter to the fans, does it? No, we must spent a lot of money on a lot of players every season. These fans live for the transfer market and not the actual games. They don’t care about the players or systems, they just look at the score line and determine whether or not it’s good enough. And if it’s not good enough or if fans determine not enough money is spent? Then we’ll have riots in the streets demanding the owners sell out to Qatari investors. Who gives a shit about human rights, we have football matches to win and shiny new toys like Bellingham to buy!
You know, I would’ve written more but I think that just about says everything I wanted. Football culture is becoming less about the soul of the game itself and more about the money associated with it. A sad reality as we enter a rebuild project.
Recent Comments