After elimination in the cup and City defeat: Pressure on Salihamidzic increases significantly

With the bitter first-leg defeat at Manchester City and the cup exit against SC Freiburg, FC Bayern is threatening to miss its goals for the season. But Bayern is not only making headlines in the sporting arena. Off the pitch, too, there is simply no peace at Säbener Straße. Criticism of the Bayern bosses continues to grow. Now the pressure is also increasing internally – and sports director Hasan Salihamidzic is once again in the spotlight.

Hasan Salihamidzic has been responsible for the sporting events at FC Bayern since summer 2017. Initially, the Bosnian held the post of sports director. Subsequently, the 46-year-old was promoted to the sports board of the German record champion in the summer of 2020. Since Salihamidzic returned to FC Bayern after his playing career, however, his work has always come under critical scrutiny from fans and internal leaders.

Questionable decisions

When FC Bayern and Hansi Flick went their separate ways in the summer of 2021 after a great sporting success story, Hasan Salihamidzic really came into focus for the first time. The reason: the relationship between the Bosnian and the sextuple coach seemed to be so fractured that Flick ended up asking the management to terminate his contract.

As Flick’s successor, the Bayern bosses installed Julian Nagelsmann – Hasan Salihamidzic’s absolute favourite coach. For this solution, FC Bayern was also prepared to dig deep into its pockets and transfer a record fee of around 20 million euros to RB Leipzig. With Nagelsmann as a young, talented coach, Munich had the vision of finally being able to shape an era again. As is well known, however, this wishful thinking is already over after only 1.5 years.

With the surprising dismissal of Julian Nagelsmann, the Bayern bosses around Kahn, Salihamidzic & Co. earned a lot of criticism. They threw their expensive long-term project overboard, even though they were still represented in all three competitions at the time. Although the basic decision was highly questionable, the manner in which it was made was incomprehensible, as the 35-year-old learned of his dismissal from the media.

With Thomas Tuchel as his successor, the bosses wanted to give the team a new impulse in order to still achieve the season’s goal of the „triple“. However, they failed to achieve this goal after only four games under Tuchel’s tenure, with the cup defeat against SC Freiburg and the bitter defeat at ManCity. Thus Hasan Salihamidzic and Oliver Kahn are slowly running out of arguments for the change of coach, which is increasingly causing criticism.

Transfers: First jubilation, now skepticism

After Bayern crashed out to Villarreal in the last CL season, criticism of the Bosnian increased again after Flick’s departure. At that time, the squad was not good enough in terms of quality and quantity, which the Munich team corrected last summer.

With Mané, De Ligt, Gravenberch, Mazraoui and Tel, FC Bayern landed many real transfer coups at first. In response to the big-name additions, Salihamidzic was also hailed by the fans and those in charge. However, most of the new arrivals are currently not a factor in the Munich game. Sadio Mané, for example, is currently making the headlines with his off-field antics rather than his convincing performance on the pitch. But Gravenberch, Mazraoui and winter newcomer Cancelo are also not the hoped-for immediate reinforcements for the German record champions. Only De Ligt and Tel were convincing in the first few months.

Internal dissatisfaction is said to be on the rise

Thus, sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic is not only publicly criticised, but also internally doubts seem to be increasing. According to information from „kicker“, satisfaction with the current squad planning, for which the 46-year-old is responsible, is on the decline. One of the reasons is the acute striker problem, which is currently the Munich team’s undoing. The plan to distribute Robert Lewandowski’s lack of goals over several shoulders has failed miserably.

In the coming summer, the 46-year-old will probably have to prove himself anew in order not to endanger his position at the FCB. Among other things, the signing of a striker who can help the Munich team immediately should ensure calm around his person for the time being.