Bayern Munich’s missing attacking piece

I journey through the desert of the mind with no hope, I follow
I drift along the ocean, dead lifeboats in the sun, and come undone.

Football, like music, or painting, or photography, or film, is art.

It’s a very nuanced argument that is far better explored in a piece all on its own, one I’ve articulated outside of BFW and you can find on my personal Substack where I now write regularly. If you are interested in the specifics of that argument, you can find it here. This series articulates two separate ideas, both in art forms, to see where they coincide and perhaps even where they differ. As everyone reading this will be in some way familiar with Bayern Munich and the ongoings at the club, I urge you to also listen to the album used as the parallel in this series as the music and its themes play a huge part in the narrative of the piece. It will not be to all of your tastes, I’m sure, so it is not required to understand the piece, but it will make the experience far more holistic and complete.

In 2002, Queens of the Stone Age released their third album, titled Songs For The Deaf. The album garnered praise from all circles, becoming their break-out hit, and still being widely regarded today as the group’s best album and one of the best projects to come out of rock in the 21st century.

Heaven smiles above me, what a gift here below, but no one knows
The gift that you give me, no one knows.

The very day the album was released, Bayern Munich ran out 3-1 (and 6-1 aggregate) winners over Partizan Belgrade in the final round of UEFA Champions League qualifying, with new signing Michael Ballack scoring his first ever Champions League goal for the club and stamping the beginning of a new era in Bayern’s midfield for the next four years, proving a key figure in holding down Bayern’s midfield for just long enough to herald the arrival of Bastian Schweinsteiger as a major contributor who would go on to define an era of Bayern’s midfield for the next decade.

And then, he cited ‘artistic differences’: Complications in executive functions

We get some rules to follow, that and this
These and those, no one knows.

Bayern Munich has functioned for the since 1979 under the careful eye of Uli Hoeneß. However in the last few years it has become clear that Hoeneß has begun to age out of the role given to him, and must be phased out of control of the club. However, I believe that Hoeneß is still capable of holding a place in Bayern’s board, not with the ability to veto decisions like it currently stands but still having some direct line of input to the decision-makers. More importantly, it stands to reason that Karl-Heinz Rummenigge must be removed from the greater structure of the club. Yes, Kalle has been a big part of Bayern’s success since joining the executive structure of the club in 2002, and he is no doubt a Bayern legend on the pitch, off the pitch he has been controversial, to say the least. Kalle was initially set to exit the club completely after stepping down from his role as CEO of the club prior to Oliver Kahn’s appointment, but Bayern winning a treble in Kalle’s last season in charge and Kahn’s subsequent failure as an executive landed a lot of political favour in Kalle’s lap.

Gimme Toro, give me some more, B-movie, gimme some gore
Gimme Toro, give me some more, gimme Toro, gimme some more.

Kalle’s style as a board member can be summarised as ‘ruthless finances’. While Bayern no doubt grew massively as a club under Kalle’s watch, a lot of it can be attributed to Hoeneß’s aggressive pushes for risk-taking, like the construction of the Allianz Arena which has always been attributed to Hoeneß. Kalle has shown, especially post-2023 now that he is on the supervisory board and we have far more transparent views on which figures are making which decisions, that he is very hesitant to spend high-profile amounts of cash — possibly believing it to be unsustainable for a publicly owned club, maybe that’s why he supports the abolishment of 50+1? It shows in Bayern’s increased spending habits once Kalle’s influence over the club diminished at the end of his tenure and especially in the years following. It’s a long road from spending nothing in the summer of 2018 to spending ~€150m per year the last three seasons.

All this without mentioning Herbert Hainer and Jan-Christian Dreesen who in essence have the most power of anyone at the club as the current Chairman and CEO and must have their own opinions on any and all financially relevant decisions made, it is easy to see why the current board member for sport Max Eberl and sporting director Christoph Freund are unable to move things along at the pace they would like or at the level they would like, as they are shackled to the whims of the higher-ups who have the power to veto anything. In particular, Eberl’s more progressive and forward-thinking decisions have been a source of great controversy, with Eberl having to stick his neck on the line to convince the supervisory board — consisting of course, of Hoeneß and Kalle — that Vincent Kompany is the right guy to coach Bayern. Hoeneß now of course views Kompany as a revelation, but it doesn’t mean Eberl didn’t, in his own eyes, risk his job for Kompany.

You can’t win anything with kids: The failings of the new blood

Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images

I know you hear it, I hear it too, it’s everywhere that I go
You come back another day, and do no wrong.

This isn’t to say that Eberl and Freund are exempt from mistakes. Eberl and Freund famously wanted Thomas Tuchel to stay during the end of the 2023/24 season, which would undoubtedly have been a horrific decision considering Tuchel’s complete disregard for Bayern’s footballing and person-to-person philosophies, as well as his lack of success on the pitch. While Eberl’s scouting and profiling has been excellent, he has still missed more than hit so far, as Hiroki Itō is still yet to make an appearance for Bayern and João Palhinha has hardly justified the hefty fee paid for him. Furthermore, while Freund has clearly been doing good work in terms of recruitment for the youth squad, the lack of first-team opportunities that have been given to young players over the last couple years is worrying, and it seems Freund’s solution to that problem has just been to send them out on loan to clubs where they haven’t developed and come back only to be sold for a couple million. Bayern still has no clear pathway to the first team for young players, with talents who would otherwise already be in contention with the first team still not in the picture such as Paul Wanner and Bryan Zaragoza.

However, I believe that Freund has a clear plan for the younger players signed, and can expand upon that plan with greater freedom, and the same applies to Eberl. Both are immensely competent individuals who have the ability to construct great squads, but must be given rope to work with as if there is no slack to cut, they have practically no margin for error and will play it safe to keep their jobs instead of moving the club forward. Bayern now, must choose a path to take, whether it’s moving forward with the times or letting the past dictate the future. The middle ground clearly isn’t working as neither side can put down a singular vision for the club and instead both sides are having to make concessions, jeopardising the overall health of the club.

We get these pills to swallow, how they stick
In your throat? Tastes like gold.

Songs For The Deaf was produced largely by frontman and band founder Josh Homme himself, but he was assisted in recording and mixing by Eric Valentine, known for his extensive work with Smash Mouth, the debut album of Slash and Chris Goss, who had already worked with Homme extensively during their stint as part of Kyuss, and would continue to work closely with Queens of the Stone Age and later the projects of the other band members involved in this album, such as Mark Lanegan’s Mark Lanegan Band and Dave Gröhl’s Foo Fighters. While there were many discrepancies and disagreements as there are in any band setting, with the rotating cast of band members came the idea that everyone was sort of gravitating around Josh Homme, who really was the centre of Queens of the Stone Age, having founded the band and being its frontman. Bassist Nick Oliveri, the second-most senior member of the band contributed heavily to the album’s creative and lyrical direction too, however this would be his last album with the band, as Oliveri would later be fired due to non-music related reasons, namely Oliveri being an alleged domestic abuser and this driving a wedge between Oliveri and Homme.

I paid attention, cost me so much to hate
For so long, I saw only wrong.

This article is only the first in a series of pieces that will completely deconstruct the current situation at Bayern, and what needs to change or move for things to continue to roll in the right direction.

Do you have any more thoughts on the situation explained in the piece? Let us know your thoughts in the forum below.