The 2018/19 season will always be unforgettable because a press conference took place in Munich that is second to none. What Uli Hoeneß, Karl-Heiz Rummenigge and young manager Hasan Salihamidzic conjured up on stage that day was memorable. But the goal was achieved: coach Niko Kovac was able to continue working in peace!
“I always say: Now the farmer has to bring in the potatoes, and now the potatoes are hot. And then hopefully we’ll have to eat them together on the last day of the game in the form of the skin.” Karl-Heinz Rummenigge appeared with this saying – although not for the first time in his career – as an ambitious poet at the end of the 2018/19 season. These flowery words fell out of the mouth of the FC Bayern CEO after the clear 5-0 home win against Borussia Dortmund on matchday 28, which meant they were top of the table. After a turbulent and intense season, Munich’s new coach Niko Kovac actually won his first championship as Bundesliga coach.
After Jupp Heynckes’ departure, it was not clear for a long time who would take a seat on the German record champions’ bench at the start of the season. But then a little coincidence is said to have given the Bayern management team the idea of who could take over the post. Niko Kovac was also present at the 60th birthday of FC Bayern’s fleet manager and chief driver, Bruno Kovacevic. And since the Croatian happened to be advised by Markus Hörwick, Bayern’s long-standing media director, one thing led to another.
“Walking Ten Dogs”
In the end, Kovac became Munich’s new coach and started the season extremely successfully with five wins. But then Bayern slid into a real crisis, which BVB fan and author Frank Fligge commented smugly in October: “Children were born this week who have never seen FC Bayern in first place in the Bundesliga.” At this point it was already an open secret that the chemistry between Kovac and his players was not right in all respects. And even the officials reacted very thin-skinned in these days and weeks. But at the end of the first half of the season, the entire club recovered and dropped just seven points in the last 19 games.
Under their new coach Lucien Favre, BVB was able to take advantage of Bayern’s weakness at the beginning of the season and even took the lead in the table from the sixth matchday. With two strong, long-missing leaders – Axel Witsel and Thomas Delaney – the team outgrew itself at times. Delaney in particular proved his outstanding qualities as a team player: “There are a lot of young players. Sometimes it’s like walking ten dogs.”
Since Borussia Dortmund lost almost all of their continuity in the second half of the season, it was a small miracle that the club was able to take the lead again after beating VfL Wolfsburg 2-0 at home. But then it was all over. The 0:5 defeat in Munich suddenly ended all hopes for the title.
“To Sandhausen? Nobody wants that”
Meanwhile, FC Schalke 04 experienced a season in decline. Right from the start, they suffered five defeats in a row. And yet coach Domenico Tedesco stayed until March. Even board member Huub Stevens had to help out as a trainer on an interim basis. The Royal Blues only secured relegation on the 31st match day. Big sigh of relief at Schalke. And as usual, we immediately looked to the future with optimism. A hope that didn’t last long, even under new coach David Wagner.
The situation in Stuttgart was even more dramatic than in Gelsenkirchen: “Theoretically, you too would have to go to Sandhausen next year – nobody wants that,” said VfB coach Markus Weinzierl at a press conference to motivate the journalists present to fight for relegation. In the end, Stuttgart only got 28 points – and thus had one of the worst results of a table sixteenth in the history of the Bundesliga. And the negative trend of the whole season continued in the two relegation games against 1. FC Union Berlin. Due to the away goals rule, the five-time German champions were relegated from the Bundesliga for the third time.
The teams from 1. FC Nürnberg and Hannover 96 accompanied VfB there. Fully deserved, one had to say at the end of a long season. The two teams were in the relegation places 17 and 18 for the entire second half of the season. The two coaches from Hannover 96 didn’t exactly show their best side when it came to language. André Breitenreiter, who was fired in January, previously said: “It’s not about me now, it’s about saving Hannover 96 from staying up.” Thomas Doll also talked his heart out: “No one wants to use phrases anymore, but: We have the chance to score points in Wolfsburg and still knock the goat over.” But in the end that didn’t work either.
It was a press conference the likes of which had never been seen in the history of the Bundesliga. On this legendary morning in October, Uli Hoeneß, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Hasan Salihamidzic outdid each other in a memorable show of superlatives. Right at the beginning of the PK, Rummenigge made it clear: “Human dignity is inviolable.” According to the Bayern chairman, the reason for this sentence was the “outrageous, disrespectful and polemical” way in which the media had treated FC Bayern in the last few weeks and months – and so “Kalle” demanded: “We want to have reporting on a factual nature.”
“… he didn’t play shit”
Ben Redelings is a best-selling author and comedian from the Ruhr area.
His current book “60 Years Bundesliga. The Anniversary Album” is a modern classic from the publishing house “The workshop”
He travels throughout Germany with his football programs. Info & dates www.scudetto.de.
Uli Hoeneß’ complexion also did not bode well: “It’s time for the most important club in Germany to position itself clearly.” With a threatening gesture and sparkling eyes, the long-time manager presented the journalists with the supposed meaning behind the crude attacks by Bayern: “This club will now present itself to the public again as a unit that you have not seen for a long time.”
But the fairness that the Bayern officials demanded for themselves and their players was quickly lost when it came to others. Hoeneß called the former squad planner of the record champions “the clever Mr. Reschke” and then blamed the former player Juan Bernat for a defeat (“… he didn’t play shit”) with a cracking voice. No wonder that young manager Hasan Salihamidzic held back a bit behind the two alpha animals. Nevertheless, at the end he said one of the decisive sentences of the day: “The Bundesliga is not a jungle show.” On this legendary morning in Munich, however, everyone involved had a different impression.
2023-08-12 05:15:39
#spectacular #press #conference #Bundesliga
