RIGHT now, German coach Otto Rehhagel ought to be finalising preparations for Bayera Munich's UEFA Cup final, first leg tie with Bordeaux tomorrow night. He ought to be involved in last minute calculations about how to counter such stars as Dugarry and company.
Not so. Last Saturday night Rehhagel got the sack. Despite taking Bayern Munich to this week's UEFA Cup final and despite the club's current league standing - joint top with Borussia Dortmund with four games to play - he was unceremoniously sent on his way in the wake of an embarrassing home loss (1-0) to former East German side Hansa Rostock.
Nine months ago, Rehhagel moved to Bayern after 14 successful years with Werder Bremen, a side he led to Bundesliga success in `88 and `93. When the new man arrived in Munich, Bayern president "Kaiser" Franz Beckenbauer described him as the best coach in the Bundesliga."
In an emergency meeting last Saturday night, however, KaiserFranz was in a less enthusiastic mood about Rehhagel, decreeing his dismissal while at the same time agreeing to take over as coach himself in a remake of a move made two seasons ago when he took over from Erich Ribbeck to lead Bayern to a surprise 13th title win.
Bayern will no doubt hope the Kaiser's magic works again. Beckenbauer himself is not so sure. In an unusually frank column in yesterday's German daily, Bild, he explained the background to Saturday's decision when writing that five board members and four players, including Bayern's two most prestigious international stars, Juergen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthaeus, had all begged him to sack Rehhagel and take over himself:
"Nine men were pressing me. They were scared we would lose everything just before the finishing line - the championship and the UEFA Cup. I told them that I cannot give any guarantees either, that they'll find magicians only at the circus and that there are six matches in three weeks and no time to make changes.
"All I can do is to try to release the mental blocks in the team."
Adding a further touch of irony to Saturday's decision was the announcement that 57 year old Italian Giovanni Trapattoni will return to take over at Bayern next season, when the interim reign of Kaiser Franz is over. Trapattoni, you may recall, left Bayern last summer after one unglorious season which saw Bayern end up sixth in the league and be eliminated from the Champions Cup by Ajax Amsterdam, admittedly at the semi final stage.
Trapattoni, of course, with seven Italian titles to his name, is the most successful coach in modern Italian soccer and his move to Bayern two years ago was closely scrutinised. Despite an amicable end to his working relationship with Bayern, it appeared that the man who coached the Juventus sides of Liam Brady and of Michel Platini had been a failure in Germany.
When Trapattoni returned to Italy this season, only to get the sack from Sardinian side Cagliari in February, plenty of pundits were willing to write him off as "finished," a "yesterday's man." Fortune's fickle wheel, however, has turned again and Trapattoni has gone from being not good enough to coach Italian relegation battlers to being called in to guide one of the most prestigious club sides in the world.
With such as Klinsmann, Matthaeus, Swiss star Ciriaco Sforza, Bulgarian Emil Kostadinov, Frenchman JeanPierre Papin, Austrian Andreas Herzog and German internationals Thomas Helmer and Christian Zeige in the squad, Bayern clearly have the player talent to get results in these final six, decisive games (two legs of the UEFA Cup final and the four league games).
Indeed, perhaps the most regular accusation levelled at Rehhagel was that he had failed to build a self-confident and dominant Bayern side despite having one of the strongest squads of recent seasons at Munich.
At least there is consolation for Rehhagel in that Bayern did after all give him a golden handshake reportedly worth in excess of £2 million.
