On this week’s main show Manu and Stefan discuss Bayer Leverkusen’s 2-0 win over FC Köln and break down what has allowed Xabi Alonso’s team to now pull 10 points clear of Bayern Munich. The pair then go over Stuttgart’s hard-fought victory over Wolfsburg and discuss the fantastic job that Sebastian Hoeneß has done at the Swabian club and whether he may be working his way into contention for the big job in Munich this summer.
The Legends are true overwhelming power sauce of Destiny yes the most legendary sauce has arrived as McDonald’s transforms into the anime world of wicd Donald’s the greatest flavors unite in all new Savory chili McDonald’s sauce to make your 10piece Wick nuggets fries and Sprites Ultra powerful unlock Manga
Comics with every meal and sit down for a new anime short every week only at McDonald’s go I participating McDonald’s for limited time while supplies last Walmart Plus members save on meeting up with friends save on having them over for dinner with free delivery with no hidden fees or markups that’s groceries
Plus napkins plus that vegetable chopper to make things a bit easier Plus members save on gas to go meet them in their neck of the woods plus when you’re ready for the ultimate sign of friendship start a show together with your included Paramount Plus subscription Walmart Plus
Members save on this plus so much more start a 30-day free trial at Walmart plus.com Paramount plus is Central plan only separate registration required see Walmart plus terms and conditions when your space has the long lasting noticeable scent of aoic vibrant scented oils you want to invite everyone
Over from book club to the fantasy league even the in-laws it smells amazing awick vibrant scented oils are infused with two times more natural essential oils versus regular Airwick scented oils for our most authentic nature inspired fragrance experience transform your space with scents like white sage of mahogany or lavender and water
Now that’s a breath of fresh Airwick hello and welcome to Gig impress in the Bundesliga podcast I’m Manu here’s Stefan banovski and uh first of all Stefan how’s it going yeah very well um another interesting weekend of German Football um the drama keeps happening uh the title race kind of continues to fall
Apart uh but still plenty to talk about I think I I have a psychological question for you that I think think I need to post um after after we you know go through the heos going and all that sort of stuff in the ad Etc um but yeah
I I’m really excited to to dig into everything that happened this weekend because it has been once again a drama fil weekend but I also wonder if it’s like we’re almost like sleepwalking to this inevitable end Stefan yeah you know was funny I was actually watching um some English
Football today on Sunday because I was kind of thinking between watching you know one of the German games or the Manchester Derby and I thought I’ll stick the Manchester Derby on and I was kind of thinking to myself that this is kind of the part of the Season where I
Start to maybe not lose interest in German football but like the kind of necessity to watch game after game kind of begins to diminish because at this point B run away with it but of course that’s still happening this season but it’s a different team running away with
It and you’re almost like well if it comes down to the title race in this this country the title race in that country then I’m going to go with the one that’s a little tighter and uh yeah again again German Football seems like a four-o conclusion but there a different
Team on top this time yeah it’s it’s really interesting I have to think back uh before the season I I was with SE um friend of the podcast SE Stafford blow right at the alian covering the super cup and uh I had this big discussion with him that Bayern won’t win the title
This year that I just don’t think they were good enough right and he’s like he’s just sat down there and he’s like oh I’m it’s going to be match day and are we’re going to be sitting here and hurri kanane will be 12 points clear
At top of the title I mean he wasn’t all wrong the title race was going to be over but sorry steep that I’m going to throw you under the bus here but uh yeah let’s turn this on his head but we’ll get get to all that and
Whether there is actually still a title race or not and uh maybe talk a little bit about poor hurri kanane as well um after after this break this episode of the game pressing podcast is brought to you by bet online bet online continues to be your number one source for all your basketball
Wagering needs including pro and college hoops throughout the year with up to the minute odds starts and Trends you can follow your favorite team’s path to the playoffs with in-game live betting contests and all the best player props experience the experience the world’s best wagering platform anytime from your
Desktop or mobile devices head to bet online today to become part of the team and remember to use the promo code belief that is b e e b e a v belief for your 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit battle line the game starts here yeah this is really the
Psychological question I wanted to pose here to you Stefan if the team on the top of the table wasn’t by a Leverkusen with 10 points clear ahead of Bayern Munich what this real will you still be a title race I I mean you and I are old
Enough to remember 2002 faken 1999 fusen um I mean the 2002 one was the more epic fail because they threw away three titles right they threw away a real trouble um you know collapse in Epic fashion and ining to give by munic the Bundesliga title oh no sorry actually
Was Dortmund excuse me B un was the first time then they collapsed uh of course in the Champions League final against Real Madrid with CED in sedan scored an incredible goal and then they lost the German Cup Final as well and to make matters worse their Captain Michel
Balak got all the way to the World Cup final with Germany and lost there to Brazil although he wasn’t on the field I mean that is the most epic collapse of all time and I think all of us even now 22 years later we still remember that so
My question to you is if it wasn’t Leverkusen 10 points clear at top of the table would we even have this discussion yeah well I’ll start by saying I do remember that Champions League final because it took place in the stadium which I grew up outside of
Hton Park in Glasgow and obviously one of the most iconic goals of champions league history uh was the Dan’s volley um yeah it’s so it’s such an interesting kind of um curse if you will um because when I was actually with the club uh early in the season they were quite
Happy to point out that you know no other team have finished second in the Bundesliga more often than Leverkusen uh which is usually something you think a club would maybe try to hide or brush under the carpet or dismiss um but Leverkusen almost kind of wear it as
Like a kind of Badge of Pride and obviously um you know the way the German Football is where it has one club that tends to monopolize and then you have like five six seven kind of big clubs competing for that I think Leverkusen do kind of feel at times that they get left
Out of that conversation when we talk about the shalas and the Dortmund and the glads and frankfurt’s and whoever else um simply because they don’t have the fan base or the stadium and things like that but they would argue that they definitely do have the history at least
On the field you know I’m sure Alas and fans can argue to the co come home about um legitimacy and 50 plus one and whatever else but yeah I mean to to to go back to your main point would we be if this was Barn this far ahead at this
Point we would say yeah it’s it’s a done is done in dusted um and to be perfectly honest with you I think this is also done in dusted uh 10 points clear with 10 point 10 games left if I’m not mistaken um and I think the key thing is
That you know this isn’t um you know this isn’t B of dortmund’s two or three points ahead with a game at alian Arena to go or as we saw last season where it was really went down to the final match day um can maybe see Leverkusen dropping
One or two points here or there and you can certainly argue that recent games they have been quite fortunate to pick up all three points but there’s just nothing about this team that makes me think they’re about to kind of implode and I think that basically sums up Leverkusen so well you
Know you look at this game against Colona the weekend two-nil win against their Rivals uh we joked before on the preview show that the self fixure the cologne fans only call a rivalry uh when they win um but had all the Hallmarks of a derby you know a red card uh some
Fantastic goals uh great atmosphere but it was a game that was once again kind of just one that Leverkusen went through the motions they did what they do best and you know both goals were just kind of a perfect example of Leverkusen I’m going to say walking into
The net even though that’s kind of in the modern kind of way of football that’s almost been used as like a critique of certain teams that try to walk into the net and it is a critique unless a team actually can do that and that’s exctly what and can do this
Season and um I thought it was also quite fitting there was galdo and frong who got the goals cuz they paid of them have just been so so so instrumental uh to this team and the way they play the way they score goals the way they win G
The way they unlock teams and I just had a friend ask me about it this afternoon saying you know he doesn’t follow German football but he said well take it that’s the German league done dusted then I was like yeah more or less he’s like I’ve
Just looked at the stats I can’t believe how many goals and assists leverkusen’s fullbacks have I was like well that’s be that’s because they’re not fullbacks they’re Wing backs or um at the very least actually just full-blown Wingers and the reason I really want to emphasize the point about those two
Players is because they’re two players playing in a system the Jai Alonzo has put together to get the best out of them and I think he’ll be a real Testament to just the a remarkable job he’s done this season that I suspect that if or when
Frong and romaldo move on to other clubs I don’t think they’ll be able to rep repli replicate what they’ve done with Leverkusen this season because they’re such specialized players in a specialized system that you know I don’t think you could just plop a frong in a
Right back for Man United or a galdo in a left back for Arsenal or Real Madrid or whatever and expect him to do the same thing it’s it’s a it’s a tailor made system with tailor made players and at the heart of it is obviously jaby Alonzo who’s tactically been brilliant
But also in terms of this this mental fortitude he’s built such incredible you know team that just do not give up and I guess the point I’m trying to get to here is that it’s it’s a very very unique moment in time for this club for these players for this
Head coach and that’s why they’ve been so amazing this season yeah I mean and there’s a couple things here um you know I was asked in the substar chat today whether Caldo is going to leave the club in the summer and I I do think Fong is going to leave
Because it’s the 40 million EUR exit Closs and I actually think that lus are planning to sell him right and that is going to be the one big sell um so they can address other fields um that they need to address although I I would argue that um fr’s replacement is already at
The club um in um Talia right um he’s yeah then tell us sorry yeah he’s already pretty much been playing that role many times including against the Bayern game where he started over frong so I would argue the replacement is already there and they’re going to use
The 40 million and I you know when you talk to agents and um people at Leverkusen they’re going to say we really only need there there’s only one player we don’t have control over and that’s frong everyone else we have control over um and that is very much by
Design right that they’re going to sell he’s going to be the one we’re going to sell and then we’re going to use the money to improve this the squad even more they also the news of course this week that emerged that they have control over har Alonzo’s contract as well there
Was always this understanding there was an exit clause in 2024 well actually it’s in 2025 right so that changes the discussion completely in my opinion because now lus can just say no to anything um and I’m I’m suspectable I mean there’s no way that Simon Ro is is
Going to to let Alonzo go and I I’m pretty sure that Alonzo will accept that um so that changes the conversation entirely and then the viz cam came out too right and said that they want to stay long term they were now talking about two or three years even about
Staying at the club so it’s really good time for Leverkusen and then the point that I also wanted to make um I just did the off so if they average two points a game for the rest of the way which would be significantly less than what they’ve
Averaging now um they would get to 84 points which is the maximum points that b Bayern Munich can still reach if you an optimistic Bayern Munich fan and think they can win all of their remaining 10 games well that’s good on you um but that’s even even if
Leverkusen drop the average point to two points a game they still get to 84 points which is they Pro and then you know they have a better goal differential as well which is the other factor that would be enough at this point you know and that’s that is a huge
Mathematical obstacle I think and that would get that would be what in five games time I’d assume just looking at the table right now I think CU they’re on 64 points so to get 84 points two two points per game uh would be five games wouldn’t it so they
10 the 64 of course oh sorry of course yeah of gosh too too late on Sunday for doing that much um yeah which would be really interesting know you’re absolutely right I think that’s such important context you know you mentioned the the ajabi Alonzo Flor vers frong
Stuff uh I think a lot of people are expecting this Leverkusen team to be dissected and it might not happen at all to be perfectly honest with you I just said yes frong might be sold because he’s been in the shot window for two or three years now to be perfectly honest with
You um floran vers I think is the key one I think he’ll probably be taking his lead from what jabbi Alonzo does if jabbi Alonzo stays floran vs will say well I’m playing my best football here we’re going to be playing in the Champions League we’re the German
Champions we’ve made history I’m happy staying here with him and I think the really important thing to bear in mind about the jabby Alonzo stuff is that yes any manager can get out of their contract they can push they can push and a club can come in and pay the
Compensation fee we saw that with J nagles men at Bayern Munich obviously not that long ago but in these circum St is we’re really talking about a club kind of needing a head coach last minute and parachuting in and saying I’m sorry but we have to take your head coach now
I know you’re in the middle of a season I know you’re middle of preparing for this cycle but we need your head coach and we’re going to give you compensation for that that’s not really what’s going to happen with jabby Alonzo at the end of the season liver know which clubs
Want him they know that Liverpool might want him they know Real Madrid do want him uh I guess you can make an argument that maybe Bayern Munich want him too but they’ve known these things for so long long now that it’s not as if they’re going to get to June and
Suddenly jabby Alonzo is going to turn around and say oh the Liverpool Jobs available I’m off guys you know he’s obviously if if they had if if if if jaby Alonzo hasn’t has any inclination to leave and go to Liverpool this summer uh or Bayern Munich um Leverkusen would already know that
Flor vers would already know that and Flor Flor vers his dad would already know that when he came out and says to the media he’s staying for two or three years um and I think as you’ve been saiding on social media quite a lot recently and I think it’s I completely
Agree with you all things line up to Real Madrid in 2025 to me um and that I think that would explain why the FL vers Camp are more than happy staying put for a year um and we’re not exactly seeing clubs or players um hanging to to move on in the
Summer well the other argument is what’s Alonzo going to do when when he’s won the Bundesliga title with leveren well how about winning it again CU like or the or the Champions League or the Champions League he’s got the whole he gets the shot in the Champions League
Which is you know yeah of course defending the title in the league title is one thing but I think we’re talking about a team here by the way who came within a whisker of winning the Europa League last season uh you know and they’re obviously in contention for this
Year so there’s absolutely no reason why jab Alonzo isn’t looking at the teams in the Champions League this season and thinking oh we could go far in that competition uh so yeah I would be surprised if that’s the main ambition next year assuming they go on and win
The league title this year I also think that the one thing that really defined crop’s time at Bia Dortmund was yes reaching the Champions League final of course but those back-to-back titles to show that you weren’t able to do it once but twice that you were able to Best Buy
Munich twice right when such a long way of really cementing his legacy at Borussia Dortmund and I think there is we have seen many one hit wonders in the Bundesliga right stutgart coming out of nowhere to win the title hasn’t done it since uh um wburg is another one came out of nowhere
Won the title never were able to replicate it or even came close to replicating it right um Dortmund is the only team that has done it has done it like two or three times in the history where they’ve wanted in you know in this this super modern Bayern era club uh
Club era that they they come in and said we’re not only going to best you once we’re going to best you twice and then we’re going to do something in the Champions League as well and for alono to do something with something like that with a club that’s not named Borussia
Dortmund maybe win back toback titles unless he said have a Deep Run in Champions League maybe win it I think that would set a legacy up for him and then he can do what club does and pick whatever Club he wants yeah exactly um and as we’ve been
Saying from day one um jab Alonzo was made it clear that he will not change his plans for a club he will do what he’s going to do and uh he’ll decide when he wants to leave by lusen so yeah if you’re a Leverkusen fan great weekend
Of action things look very Rosy for 2024 in my opinion and uh this just maybe hold off on believing all these transfer rumors until the end of the season perhaps yeah um speaking of transfer rumors and coaching decisions um I don’t want to talk too long about them because
I feel like we’ve said everything that is to be said um and we probably maybe have to do another big podcast later this week if they go out to Lau in the Champions League Stefan although um I I I am actually really optimistic that Bayern Munich will now put all the X in
The Champions League basket and and possibly even go deep in that competition if they get past Lazio right um but you know that two two draw against fber um there was two big takeaways I had from this game a teams now believe that they can beat Bayern CU
Like at no point when fber went down to one most of most most teams in past years would have said okay well that’s it then you know there’s no coming back I was like no not only are we going to go for a draw here we’re going to try to
Actually get all three points and they played really really good football I mean this is Christian stri this is Christian St side they they do play good football period but like I think the teams now have a believe that Bayern Munich are there for the taking and I
Think that is a huge change and it also underlines what we’ve said um over the last few weeks how much work Max AEL and Kristof for have in the coming months trying to fix this and I actually think there’s a really good well which is you know brings us back to Alonzo maybe
Wanting to stay because I think it leaves It Wide Open next year as well or someone coming in and maybe beat this B Munich site again um obviously we have a lot of coaching discussions um if it isn’t Alonzo and if tul doesn’t get past Lazio we might have that discussion next
Week it is so crazy to think for me Stefan that the man that is now being talked about is the guy that gave the club the biggest heartbreak in the history the Legends are true overwhelming power sauce of Destiny yes the most legendary sauce has arrived as McDonald’s transforms into the anime
World of wickd Donald’s the greatest flavors unite in all new Savory chili McDonald’s sauce to make your 10piece WIC nuggets fries and sprit Ultra powerful unlock Manga comics with every meal and sit down for a new anime short every week only at McDonald’s go I participating McDonald’s for limited time while supplies
Last Walmart Plus members save on meeting up with friends save on having them over for dinner with free delivery with no hidden fees or markups that’s groceries plus napkins plus that vegetable chopper to make things a bit easier plus memb save on gas to go meet
Them in their neck of the woods plus when you’re ready for the ultimate sign of friendship start a show together with your included Paramount Plus subscription Walmart Plus members save on this plus so much more start a 30-day free trial at Walmart plus.com Paramount plus is Central plan only separate
Registration required see Walmart plus terms and conditions this episode of the game pressing podcast is brought to you by bet online bet online continues to be your number one source for all your basketball wagering needs including pro and college hoops throughout the year with up to the minute odds starts and
Trends you can follow your favorite team’s path to the playoffs with in-game live betting contests and all the best player props experience the experience the world’s best ring platform anytime from your desktop or mobile devices head to bet online today to become part of the team and remember to use the promo
Code believe that is b e b e a b for your 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit battle line the game starts here yeah yeah I suppose so um and obviously you’re talking about all the good of Shire um who which I think that that that that kind of lay
Off for me there was a bit a misleading because I thought you were going to talk about Sebastian hes and I was like when did he break Barb unix’s but yeah so just cont just add context to J press was saying that if tole is sacked before
The end of the season Soul Shire might be brought in as the um the caretaker head coach uh which makes absolutely no sense to me uh I personally think so shire’s just got a very busy agent who’s happy to take phone calls from journalists to be
Honest with you um because every time I comes up in England the exact same story pops up um but yeah this was always going to be a problem with keeping tle on um they they’ve kind of pulled all their sporty levers haven’t they they’ve got nothing left they can do they can’t
Exactly say well we might sag tole because it result are good enough oh you’ll say well you know I I I know I’ve already been I’ve been handing my p45 I’m already cleared out my office uh I’m already you know I’m already looking for a fly in London or whatever I’m leaving
Munich uh in a few months time for for sure um but yeah I don’t know I mean the the fascinating thing is that at this point surely You’ think they would just give it to like one of the youth head coaches or someone in charge of the
Reserve team or whatever else you know um I’m trying to remember um if Mir closer was is still running the under 19s under 21s no he’s gone the one that has been talked about is Martin Demi killis right well yeah well there we go then you know something like that would
Make far more sense to me where there’s no expectation that he’s going to take the job or and he can go back into his role at the club um rather than some like soul shark because that just doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to me to be perfectly honest with you but
The reason we’re talking about this is because of course Bayern Munich Drew dropped more points and as you said fryberg were outstanding in this game uh two excellent goals from fryberg and actually two excellent goals from Bayern it was four outstanding goals so I would definitely recommend any who didn’t
Watch this game to go check out the goals um and it you know what I think it really sums up baring quite well actually in the sense that going forward they have their moments you know muala still capable of incredible amount of magic really kind of weaving through
Defenders to score that goal mates t with an outstanding placed shot um I’m sure a lot of fans I know a lot of our subscribers have been kind of crying out for him to get more starts and he also did a good job of uh picking up his goal
But yeah as you said this just kind of um shows that teams are not afraid of byon and I think it’s probably quite even the Gunter goal particular um the first goal for fryberg the fact that Manuel Neuer pulls off an amazing save in the leadup to that and then maybe the
Third or fourth phase of that attack the ball goes in the back of the net if you’re Manuel Neuer if you’re defensive coach you pull your hair at that point because you think why why do I why is it I make an amazing save like that and
Then like 40 seconds later the ball still isn’t out of our our box um and I think that sums up a lot of the issues of bar have had this season um but yeah they’re in a rck um they’re kind of playing for second place at this point
I’m sure as well say the moment I’ll talk about a moment even that might be in Jeopardy um but um yeah it definitely feels like Tule is now just kind of do whatever he wants because that lineup uh I think was actually quite similar to
The one we saw in the previous game um you know D starting and set it back K make it right back uh in intriguingly kind of sticking by Thomas Müller which I find quite surprising uh open m dropped uh you know it’s it’s it feels to me like um I
Think you actually mentioned this in one of the uh the subscriber chats maybe last weekend’s one where you said it looks like TL’s almost just using these Bundesliga games as practice runs for the Champions League itself um which is quite interesting because that is a competition that they’re actually still
In um but yeah it’s it’s it’s it’s a very bizarre moment to be a baric fan F right there that’s for sure yeah I mean matis tell um there’s a bunch of our substack subscribers that were were screaming of Joy when he was finally in the starting lineup and then
Vindicating them that with that beautiful goal right um I thought he he was excellent um you know and I think this is the time now to play him because he is the future for this club and the the Bundesliga is you know increasing becoming Irrelevant for them so you
Might as well play him sa pavlovich he’s sticking to him too um sort of a counter argument to all those people saying tul can’t can’t integrate young players because there’s two right there um so you know paval in particular the fact that he’s playing him on such an
Important position every match day and yes he’s not perfect no one is saying that he can’t be is 19 um I think that’s a lot of credit to him um I actually thought you know this game was really good Bayern Munich essentially drop points because as you said defensively
There was issues there again right that ball rushing around the box and poor Mario Noya who actually I thought had two excellent games now because I think he was really good against di as well um really good reflex saves really making really good stops um you know what is he
Supposed to do there like what is he supposed to do there he just must must be so frustrating um you know and that’s it kind of all leads us to on the field T’s actually I think in some ways setting up his successor quite nicely by bringing in Tel and pavlovich now and
Maybe leaving him two ready made young players that you know whoever comes in next can kind of take over I guess the big question then uh is whoever comes next it was actually really interesting point that was put into the substack chat we have the match days chat right
Um that every week is just growing and growing and someone asked about fa Nots anest slot um who’s now on Max eel’s list interesting name not someone that we maybe expected um I was asked by a um by someone at the White Caps game that I covered yesterday for transfer
Mark here in Vancouver about Sebastian H turns out one of the journalists is a big Shut fan and really worried that Bayern are going to poach um their for their former youth coach right and bring him back to Munich um I think those two because I I think internally Bayern are
Probably quite aware of of how difficult Alonzo is going to be they’re going to try don’t get me wrong because they’re Bay Munich you know they’re always going to try to PGE someone like Alonzo from their position um and you have to recall they tried something similar with klopp
Right when he was a Dortmund so like this is not unheard of the rumors that you seeing with Alonzo and Bayern they this is not new this happened 10 years ago already but I think internal they know that this is going to be really tricky arest lot is an interesting name
I I have to do my research on him to be honest I know fire not have done some really interesting things in the Netherlands I know Dutch coaches have history at Bayern right we all remember Louis FAL um and how well he I I modern Bayern Munich would not exist without
Louis FAL I think this is a point that we always need to make uh make very strongly he had his issues but you know um Dutch Dutch managers have worked in the past but Sebastian hunis is the one that intrigues me because his stat side could catch Bayern and finished second
In the Bundesliga Stefan yeah they absolutely could as things stand after this weekend’s uh football they’re four points behind um I actually thought they were quite lucky to beat wolburg to be perfectly honest with you um my heart actually goes out to Pro bburg who in the last kind of
Month have probably deserved a point against uh star um probably um sorry I’m obviously deserved the point against W star H we held to draw against Frankfurt probably should have beat in Dortmund where they got a point um and then they played you know in Berlin and on hoffen
Before that so they’ve had a really tough run of it actually recently um yeah well exactly um and they are kind of edging closer to that relegation Zone and actually I would maybe argue that if you actually look I don’t have the stats in front of me so um forgive
Me if I’m wrong but I reckon if you were to look back over Stuart’s last five games H I suspect that their xg4 might be less than XG against um and what I mean by that is they’re actually they haven’t been creating as many chances as their opponents but they’ve been more
Clinical and like a lot of teams at this point of the Season like we’ve seen leverkus really grind out results stugart are doing the exact same thing as well um so you know star in a great position but the I don’t know like this the stories linking Sebastian H is to the
Buern job um are interesting of course he’s done a fantastic job job he’s right up there with shabby Alonzo for you know manager of the Year obviously I don’t think he’s going to get it if Alonzo wins the title I don’t think he’ll begrudge anyone that and voting for
Alonzo in that regard but I think you have to maybe consider the the Optics here for how that would play out for Bayern H and actually I’d probably include Arie slot in that too who um did a great job with fires he was actually linked with the Tottenham job before
They decided to go for an POA cogo it was really heavily linked that I might even go as far as to say f kind of stopped him from moving there but maybe I’m making that up uh I can’t remember uh I’m going purely on um and this was
Like last May so it’s been a while since then but um yeah you wrot an article on him didn’t you for transfer mark on anest lot yeah yeah yeah I did a profile on him um when he was linked with a Tottenham job I spoke to our colleague
Kevin luks in Holland so I definitely suggest B fans go look that up and on transfer Mark and and see what you think of it but I don’t know um the interesting thing is that like for obviously you know if if someone like Chris or Max Abel are looking that you
Know the next five or 10 years at Bayern Munich then someone like Sebastian hes or SLO would make a perfect sense because he’s a project manager uh you know he’s a young name who they can probably pick up quite easily and build a squad around the only issue is that
They did this two or three years ago with Julian nagles and it all went up in smoke and I suspected some fans may not accept with all the respect a lesser name stepping into the the freay here they’d probably want some kind of a big name manager um that they can put
Toe-to-toe with the likes of Pep Guardiola uh you know well I guess you’re Club will be their next season Bara Arsenal or Carlo L Real Madrid etc etc um the question is what kind of coaches are available and and and that’s that is a tricky one but it’ll be
Interesting I mean I’d love to here for some Baron fans who they would want because Jai Alonzo is the obvious one that everybody wants but as we talked about um neither was probably really suspect you’ll leave Leverkusen this summer um and I don’t know I think I
Think if I was I think I if I was Bayern I’d be looking at Sebastian hes and thinking he’s got everything right this season but can he do it more than once and I know he has obiously this isn’t his debut season and The Bu has done a
Fantastic job as stard and before that um but you know I think he has to kind of prove that over a number of Seasons at stutgart before maybe he should be like in line for a job like Bayern Munich because if they’re not careful and they do kind of
Go for this kind of left choice they might be stuck with another situation like jul nagles who remember tactically spot on uh Squad selection spot on training the problem that the problem that jul nagles had at bar was that he just simply wasn’t used to a club of
That size uh he wasn’t used to having this almost like a transfer committee above him he wasn’t used to have an entire boardroom uh make their point uh week in week out and having basically a small village of big name ex players um you know just knows in on his job every
Week and I know that sounds like hyperbole but that’s exactly the issue that an AR SLO or a or a Sebastian hes will have to deal with and it’s obviously something that Thomas T struggled with as well yeah and I mean both T recently right um and I wrote
About this in my Max eval piece um mentioned this right in public and then julan nman did a really big interview with desle where he mentioned that as well you know the culture of the club and how difficult it is to change things and bringing in new ideas and how hard
The board is to convince and it’s actually interesting I mentioned Louis vanal earlier right he too publicly spoke out about that afterwards how tricky it can be to come in as some someone who is maybe has some more radical ideas and I’m not talking you cleans from putting Buddhas in the the
Training center right I talking radical ideas tactically different reason um and I don’t think what nman and Louis FAL you know suggested was always radical um there were some ideas that were rightfully Ved you know um but there were some ideas that CLE cman famousy wanted to loan out thas Miller
To hofheim right um which retrospect crazy but you know there’s some things where maybe managers come in and they feel like they cannot quite reform the club um and of course maybe that can I just make one point to that man on the back of that before we jump on I was
Just going to say that when nagles when got sacked from byn I wrote a piece for the telegraph uh here in England and I spoke I I spoke to someone off the Record who used to work with nagles and he told me that before nagles man was
Sacked uh he caught up with with them after a game where this person that works at another bu club and he said it was quite telling that when he said hey how’s the B Munich going job going nagles just turned around to and said it’s exhausting it’s absolutely
Exhausting and it’s not to do with the players the players are great training ground great and you know you get a lot of PR in propaganda saying he fell out with this player he fell out with that player in reality he just struggled to fit into a much bigger structure and I
Think as you said you know hes or or already slot might do the same yeah it’s it’s extremely complicated it’s interesting because like independent sources told me the same thing that um I don’t think it was the same Source Def and we talked to different people but
You know they to be exact the same thing it’s it wasn’t it was a it was a well-known secret it was the worst kept secret in German Football really yeah and I mean you got nles SP all these people I mean the circle of people in football is usually quite small you know
You’re only always separated by there’s only always one degree of separation really between anyone um it is a really small world so you know you get a really good P if you really want to you can get a really good picture really quickly um
And I think you know the fact to that so many people have spoken publicly about I also want to flip this around and talk about stard because stard are now probably going to make the Champions League I I I think they will right they’re going to have a top four and as
We point out many times top five is probably going to be enough finish they now brought in in the new investor in Porsche right and what an investment that’s for them right they’re buying this steak in this football club and um that clearly St got are on the up and I
Mean up up up and up because the stad stadium renovation looks really good as well um they’re going to play Champions League football next year which means there’s going to be a huge influx of money um there’s a lot of things going right there right and so if you
Sebastian hernes and you look at this and like I’m going to have a lot more money to spend next year Porsche are coming in there’s going to be a brand new stadium because of the Euros right um I’m going to be in the Champions League I can prove myself there and then if
Bayern might still be there in two three years the way things are going or I could go to a other club I could maybe become the successor for har Alonzo at lusen or maybe Li need a new boss or who knows what’s going on with Dortmund right
Like I I I don’t think there is an urgency from him either yeah I think yeah I think that’s important to note that as we talked about jab Alonzo where we often say he knows that Real Madrid will always be there for him Jes is much the same with
Bayern you know he is I know the name itself has some recognition even though it’s maybe a little it’s maybe not as obvious as people think because they maybe think he’s only H as his son or something like that it’s not quite the same um but in a sense Bayern will always be
There for him if he continues to do a good job as a head coach you know he could as you said he could spend another couple of Seasons at stutgart he could even go off and you know coach in the Premier League and do a decent job there
And as we’ve seen with Jurgen klopp the entire time he’s been a Liverpool that Germany job or that byon job have always been kind of waiting in the wing if he ever wanted it and we never know maybe klopp could be the Bayern Munich head coach next season God uh
But the only thing I want to if the only the last thing I want to add about stard here is just that I think it’s maybe also worth just kind of tapering their expectations only because as I said the XG numbers of last five games I suspect maybe suggest that they’re not running
Out of steam or you know Running on Empty or anything like that but they are beginning to really grind out results against you know teams who uh I think at this the first half of the Season we really expect him to really blow away and then if you look at who they’ve got
Coming up they’ve got on Berlin they’ve then got hoffenheim who again won this weekend uh Heidenheim who you know can who love taking big scalps then is Dortmund Frankfurt Breman Leverkusen and then BN Munich with two games to go and you look at that list of teams and
Absolutely are Stuart better than un on Berlin of course any better than hoffenheim yes Heidenheim Dortmund Frankfurt Breman all these teams absolutely so there’s no reason to say they can’t continue doing well but if they are going to start dropping points and if they’re going to continue kind of
Scraping by scraping by a really wor bad you word to use there cuz it not suggest they don’t deserve it but unless they can maybe get another kind of boost of energy or performances I suspect they might start dropping points there but only other thing to add is that we’ve
Seen dund in Li drop points all season long so it’s not really as if either of them are going to put a huge amount of pressure on them and the team ahead of them might still drop a few points here and there as well Bayern Munich right
And I I actually suspect that when stutgart play Bayern and Leverkusen that might actually be a really opportune time to play one of them because they they won’t care [Laughter] anymore absolutely well hey Luke Bayern Bayern plays star on the 5th of April and by then we might know if Sebastian
Hes will be the star head coach next season or the Bayern head coach next season yeah we we might we might uh that is an interesting one to watch um we had a few thoughts about Bia dman but I actually think we need to shelf them for
Later this week when we talk about transfers and some other stuff because there were some interesting comments and um I think this is a good place to wrap up the main show the the review show um as I said I I added the uh Stefan’s excellent arest lot article um that he
Wrote for transfair Mark to the substack chat um and we can share it one more time maybe as well on a different chat if that topic comes up again because it is quite good um I quickly read it while you were talking to Stefan so I think
You answered all you answered all the main questions about Anis slot and it I don’t think there’s much to add um so that was quite good um so yeah check that out and yeah as always this podcast is brought to you by bet online um there was some really good content last week
If you want to still catch up on that and then of course we have the Full Slate of new content coming up um this week so stay tuned for that as well uh I think that does it Stefan anything you want to add uh no um just to say yeah we’ll have
The bonus shows be back this week I think we’ve agreed we’re going to do reaction shows to the two European games uh I think that’s Bayern and leig if not mistaken um who are both very much in their ties uh so yeah that should be very interesting and just a big thank
You to everyone who subscribed uh also another shout out for the YouTube channel we’ve started putting all our videos up on that that’s also why actually maybe we should publicly uh uh declare this that we no longer use the theme song uh no one’s actually asked about it yet but it’s probably worth
Explaining that basically every time the podcast uh got uploaded to YouTube we got a copyright complaint obviously because we’re using uh the band’s music so we decided just to remove that from the podcast avoid any issues we hope listeners don’t mind um but hey look if
You really P it you could always go play the song before you listen to the podcast and then you can just pretend it still goes and talk with from the toen hos uh shout out great band the biggest German rock band there is period um in fact
Think a picture of the concert in borus a Argentina hangs in Alou that’s how big they are uh or we might believe the the big Museum New York it’s one of them whatever um that’s enough for today Stefan let’s wrap this up until next time I’ll V in the Legends are true
Overwhelming power sauce of Destiny yes the most legendary sauce has arrived as McDonald’s transforms into the anime world of wickd Donald’s the greatest flavors unite in all new Savory chili McDonald’s sauce to make your 10piece Wick nuggets fries and sprit Ultra powerful unlock Manga comics with every
Meal and sit down for a new anime short every week only at McDonald’s go I participate in McDonald’s for limited time while supplies last Walmart Plus members save on meeting up with friends save on having them over for dinner with free delivery with no hidden fees or markups that’s
Groceries plus napkins plus that vegetable chopper to make things a bit easier plus m save on gas to go meet them in their neck of the woods plus when you’re ready for the ultimate sign of friendship start a show together with your included Paramount Plus subscription Walmart Plus members save
On this plus so much more start a 30-day free trial at Walmart plus.com Paramount plus is Central plan only separate registration required see Walmart plus terms and conditions you know when you’re listening to a True Crime Story that has an unbelievable plot twist that makes you stop in your tracks that’s what our
Podcast people are the worst brings you with each episode I’m Rachel and I’m Rebecca we’re identical twins who love True Crime cases that make you say didn’t see that coming and we hate the people responsible for them listen to people are the worst now on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcast
3 Comments
Bayer Leverkusen of 2002 was a formidable team to watch. They played a very unique and fantastic football. Unfortunately, Ulf Kirsten already passed his prime and Berbatov was too young otherwise you can speak of a perfect team. Sadly, Ze Roberto, who had his best season ever, was suspended and missed the CL final! If not, Leverkusen might have won.
Thank you for this wonderful podcast. I am happy for Bayer Leverkusen who are making important steps to win the title. Winning the next two matches will bring the team closer to the Meisterschale.
Everyone is talking about Bayern but what about Dortmund , BVB still haven't been able to catch Bayern although Bayern are struggling LOL