Ex-manager Nerlinger: van Gaal “starting point” for FC Bayern dominance

“The club had great difficulties”

The former Bundesliga manager and current player advisor Christian Nerlinger sees in coach Louis van Gaal the origin of FC Bayern’s current dominance. The 48-year-old, team manager in 2008/09 and sporting director at Munich for the following three years, said “The Athletic”: “I see van Gaal as an important starting point for what has happened at Bayern in the last ten years.”

The Dutchman switched to Bayern in July 2009 and had made the German record champions a double and super cup winner before his dismissal in April 2011. However, the 2010 Champions League final against Inter Milan was lost. “When he took over, the club had a lot of difficulties. The year before we lost 4-0 in Barcelona, ​​it could have been ten (goals conceded; ed.). Suddenly there was a lot of discipline and I could see how structure had come into the team,” said Nerlinger. (Statistics: Bayern players signed under van Gaal.)

The former national player advises Bundesliga professionals such as Florian Neuhaus (24), Felix Uduokhai (24) and Niklas Dorsch (24) with his agency CN Sports GmbH. Previously he helped sign van Gaal who “created value for the club and was fascinating. I’ve never seen a coach prepare a game as well, structure and develop a team as he does.” like Thomas Müller (32), David Alaba (29) and Toni Kroos (32) flourished during this time. The most valuable Bayern player was Franck Ribéry (38) with a market value of 50 million euros (on the squad for the 2009/10 season).

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The youth work of FC BayernCurrently in the professional squad
“It was a dream,” said Nerlinger about the period at that time. “These players were people to talk to that I took very seriously. They had a vision for the game, identified 100 percent with the club and were intelligent guys.” The ex-manager continued: “It was new at Bayern that you believed in these young players and supported them and them as personalities Bayern Munich’s youth work, which has been much criticized in recent years, recently produced a youngster from its own ranks in midfielder Jamal Musiala (18), who was signed by Chelsea in 2019, and who could play a key role with the professionals in the future .

Nerlinger: van Gaal was “always good for a surprise” at Bayern

Considered eccentric, van Gaal “was always good for a surprise. You never knew what would happen the next day, but if you went into a discussion prepared and talked about important issues, he always accepted that. He just didn’t accept emotional comments that had no basis in fact. It was a good relationship,” said Nerlinger.

Before van Gaal’s engagement at Säbener Straße, the former national coach Jürgen Klinsmann had failed miserably – Jupp Heynckes, later triple coach at FCB, had brought the season to an end on an interim basis. Despite Nerlinger’s praise: van Gaal only had an average of 2.03 points in Munich and did not make it into the top 10 in the ranking of Bayern coaches with the best points. The record championship streak supports the thesis that the current Bonds coach heralded the very successful Bayern times: Only in the first season after van Gaal’s dismissal – 2011/12 – did the club not become German champions, but made it in all competitions in second place or in the final.

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