Jupp Heynckes is the right choice to be Interim manager

In a sensational move, Bayern Munich are set to announce Jupp Heynckes as the new interim manager of the club until the end of the season and it’s a move that makes perfect sense.

Bayern Munich has found their replacement for recently sacked manager Carlo Ancelotti by hiring Jupp Heynckes as the new interim manager until the end of the season, according to reports.

The move is quite surprising as Heynckes has not been a manager in any capacity for the last four years after retiring from management with his last club being the club that he is returning too – with him receiving the perfect send-off as a manager winning the treble with Bayern Munich in the 2012/13 season.

Bayern Munich had reached the Champions League final the previous season in 2012 at Bayern’s own home ground losing to Chelsea in a dramatic game on penalty shoot-outs. This loss spurred Bayern on to play the best football the club had ever played in the last fifteen years, a dominating team that destroyed and dominated both Juventus and Barcelona in the Champions League before defeating Borussia Dortmund in the all-German final.

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Heynckes Bayern was a devastating force, able to play both possession football and devastating counter-attacking football at will. The quality of the team was good enough to overcome anybody in their path, they were a force driven for redemption after losing two straight Bundesliga titles to Dortmund and the Champions League to Chelsea. A wrong turned right, Heynckes was able to go out with a blaze of glory that very few will ever be able to achieve in the sport, not even Sir Alex Ferguson was able to end his managerial career in such a way.

So, it may be a little confusing to others as to why Heynckes would come out of retirement to coach Bayern once more, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll be able to replicate what he achieved in the 2012/13 season, could he be risking damaging his legacy in the short-term? Potentially, but it would take something overly drastic for that to happen as even if this is the year that Bayern do not win the league, the blame will not be on him at all.

But there are positives for Bayern hiring Heynckes, even in the short-term. He is very well-respected among the Bayern fan base and the players, he is somebody who will have no issues getting the players on his side and that will be a very important factor into the decision of who replaces Ancelotti. If the reports going around about the dissent between Ancelotti and the players are true –with the Bayern players organizing secret training sessions behind Ancelotti’s back- it will be very important for Bayern to have somebody who can immediately steady the ship and get everybody on the same side.

This is what Heynckes can do immediately and on top of this, his system and the way he wants his team to play fits the Bayern team already. There will not have to be any major changes to the way the team plays and there doesn’t have to be a settling in period.

This would be the biggest problem Bayern would have if they were to hire Thomas Tuchel as the permanent manager or Louis Van Gaal as the interim manager. Both would require settling in periods and both have very polarizing personalities. If Bayern are to hire Tuchel, it would be in their own best interests to wait until the season is over and allow him a preseason to get the team used to how he wants to play along with getting in his own players.

This is the same with Julian Nagelsmann if they so wish to go after him next summer, for Bayern the short-term option with a proven manager is the better choice. It relieves the pressure of a bad season for Bayern potentially for their own standards on any new manager, especially now with Manuel Neuer and Frank Ribery suffering long-term injuries, and allows the new manager to have a fresh start to their tenure.