Eintracht Frankfurt produced the outstanding result of the most recent Bundesliga matchday with a spectacular 5-1 victory over reigning league champions Bayern Munich. As was indicated by the scoreline, it was an extremely one-sided match - Frankfurt completely dominated the Bavarian giants and easily outclassed them throughout.
However, the most astonishing turn of events took place the day after the match.
As a direct consequence of the loss, Bayern head coach Niko Kovač was fired from the position. This move came as a major surprise due to the fact that Kovač had led Bayern to a Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal title in the 2018-19 season and that this season, despite the crushing loss to Frankfurt, Bayern are still firmly in the league title race; they only trail league leaders Borussia Mönchengladbach by four points.
Bayern have never been a club to make spur-of-the-moment decisions like this, so the club's firing of the Croat was very much unexpected. Despite Bayern's somewhat slow start to the season, they were not in any way a club in crisis and thus had no reason to make such a drastic and hasty decision.
When Kovač took over at the Allianz Arena in July 2018, some questioned the decision to hire him because he had only had six years of experience as a head coach up to that point, of which only two were in a major European League. However, at that time, he had been fresh off leading Frankfurt to an unexpected DFB-Pokal title after stunning Bayern 3-1 in the final.
However, after a shaky start and moderate amounts of unrest in the Bayern locker room, Kovač rapidly corrected the situation and steered the club back on the right path, culminating in a league and cup double in his first season in charge. Although Bayern were knocked out of the Champions League in the round of 16, they can count themselves unfortunate that such was the case because their elimination was against eventual champions Liverpool in what was one of the tournament's most hotly contested matchups. When combined with his impressive tenure at Frankfurt, the Berlin-born coach had been beginning to build quite the impressive coaching résumé, so his firing was clearly contrary to everything which had preceded it apart from the recent loss to Frankfurt.
Of course, that's not to say that Kovač has not made his share of mistakes during his time at the helm of Bayern. Some of his chief errors came in the transfer market. The signing of Lucas Hernandez from Atlético Madrid for the eye-popping sum of €80 million was an obvious overpay, while Bayern were likely underpaid when they sold Portugal winger Renato Sanches to Lille for €20 million. As has been mentioned, Kovač was not always the best manager of personalities either; the occasional bouts of intra-team discord were evidence of this fact, although it never reached a point which caused the complete implosion of the team.
Nevertheless, it is fairly likely that Bayern's decision to fire Kovač will prove to be the wrong one. The coach who is seen by most as Kovač's successor is former AC Milan and Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri. Landing the man from Livorno would be a major coup for Bayern; however, should they fail to do so, they will certainly be in a difficult position.
The fact that Kovač was fired just one day after the 5-1 loss proves that his firing was a knee-jerk reaction and not one which was carefully planned. As Bayern have always been methodical and measured in the way the club is run, this was very much unlike Bayern's upper management to pull the trigger; they could very well end up regretting this impulsive decision.
As for Kovač himself, one should expect him to find himself back in the dugout before too long. The chances are also relatively reasonable that he will do so with another of Europe's leading clubs; he has proven himself as a good enough coach to deserve a second chance with such a club.
I would like to conclude this post by saying one thing: as a Borussia Dortmund fan, I will admit to having indulged in a good deal of schadenfreude during the match, after it, and even while writing this post.
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