Thirty years ago, real drama took place at FC Bayern Munich. Nothing went well in this worst Bundesliga season ever. And to top it all off, manager Uli Hoeneß committed the biggest and most fatal trainer misunderstanding in the history of the record champions!
Uli Hoeneß tried to make a good face for the bad game. At the training camp in Bordeaux, France, he had himself photographed for the photographer with a baguette under his arm and a stately dog at his feet – which at the time were in the obligatory white tennis socks in black shoes – in front of the fine Bavarian accommodation. But at night, on those cool January days thirty years ago, the manager of the record champions was anything but in the mood to laugh: “Sometimes I lie awake in bed for two to three hours and think about FC Bayern.” He probably guessed back then what we know today: in the end it was to be the most disastrous season in Munich’s Bundesliga history!
It was a season for FC Bayern that eclipsed everything that had come before – and in a dramatic way. Player revolts, three coaches and a veritable leadership chaos, which ended with President Fritz Scherer finally putting the two Vice Presidents Franz Beckenbauer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge at his manager Hoeneß’ side, are still in the memories of all the protagonists of the time.
A few weeks earlier, in the fall of 1991, on the 12th day of the game, the team lost again at home in the Olympic Stadium, coach Jupp Heynckes simply couldn’t be held back. Because it was the kind of “swatter” that could be listed in the textbook of football as a prime example of this term that finally forced FC Bayern to act. Jupp Heynckes’ team lost 4-1 to newly promoted Stuttgarter Kickers.
Suddenly, descent is an issue
Now Uli Hoeneß had to show that he was the right man for Munich even in the crisis. And indeed, the manager surprised all football fans in Germany with a daring idea for the coaching position: he brought in the then thirty-three-year-old Sören Lerby. Although the Dane had played for the record champions for many years, as a coach he was a complete novice – and without the right license.
But none of that interested Uli Hoeneß. He was so taken with his unexpected coup that he angrily and energetically dismissed all warnings. But the Bayern manager couldn’t hold out for long. Because the team continued where they left off under Heynckes. And slowly but surely, the team also dealt with a word that they had not previously known at Bayern: relegation. At the time, goalkeeper Raimond Aumann said: “Terrible: I played up there for twelve years. When I wake up, I think it’s all a nightmare. But unfortunately it’s true.”
In addition to the sporting disaster, another issue was brewing away from the pitch that Lerby and Bayern actually thought they had overcome. When he moved from Ajax Amsterdam to Munich in 1983, there were tax irregularities for which the Dane was sentenced to six months probation and a fine of 220,000 marks. When temporary goalkeeper Toni Schumacher was confronted with this story, he replied jovially: “I don’t care as long as we don’t have to do the player sessions via walkie-talkie from prison.”
Left early and still welcome
In addition, coach Lerby never got a grip on Stefan Effenberg, who had already been rebellious under Heynckes. Even mediation attempts by his friend and compatriot from Lerby (“If Stefan doesn’t change, he’ll be kicked out of the team and will sit in the stands for two years”), Brian Laudrup, came to nothing. But even the officials were at their wits end. Because of the “unsound way of life” of some professionals, Uli Hoeneß set up a so-called “spy ring” in all the players’ hangouts in Munich, which was supposed to report gross misconduct on the part of the professionals. Infamous times, back then at Bayern Munich!
Ben Redelings is a passionate “chronicler of football madness” and a supporter of the glorious VfL Bochum. The bestselling author and comedian lives in the Ruhr area and maintains his legendary anecdote treasure chest. For ntv.de he writes down the most exciting and funniest stories on Mondays and Saturdays. More information about Ben Redelings, his current dates and his book with the best columns (“Between Puff and Barcelona”) is available on his website www.scudetto.de.
And right in the middle the biggest misunderstanding of the coach in the history of the record champions. Because although Hoeneß had given the coach a grace period in the training camp in Bordeaux via the media (“We have to be fair and give Lerby a chance. Six weeks from the start of the season on February 8th”), the Dane should not be well before the end of this time be more Bayern coach. At the beginning of March, the manager hired Erich Ribbeck, a man who coincidentally had been announced by a major German sports magazine in mid-December as the new Bayern coach for the winter break.
In his 15 Bundesliga games on the Munich bench, Sören Lerby had previously only managed four wins for Bayern. A more than sad record. After a 4-0 loss to 1. FC Kaiserslautern, the likeable Dane had to vacate his chair. And although his time as a coach was associated with so many negative experiences, he is still a welcome guest at FC Bayern Munich.
