It was always going to happen. Florian Plettenberg‘s report that Bayern Munich’s U-23 manager, Holger Seitz, would step down at the end of the season comes as little surprise. Here is the report:
Bayern II head coach Holger Seitz will take on a new role next season and is stepping down from his current position. The coaching position will be filled by a new appointment, with talks already underway with top candidates. Several other head coach roles in the youth teams are also set to be reassigned.
The new sporting director, Michael Wiesinger, who starts on 1 May, is already restructuring many areas in the background.
The reason Seitz was hired to be Bayern’s U-23 head coach in the first place was for the sake of continuity, because he arguably does his best work in a different job altogether. The U-23 head coach position has been in constant flux at Bayern for year now as, since Hermann Gerland left the position in 2009, the longest anyone has been in the role is for two years in a row. That can be acceptable to a senior team but it is terrible for the development of a young team. For the sake of continuity Seitz, the usual Academy Manager, was chosen to manage the team.
But his style of play just does not work for Bayern. He coaches a defensive minded game that simply lacks a lot of the elements needed for an attack to thrive. Seitz brings a lot of good qualities to the table, from man management to temperament, but his style of play simply does not fit at Bayern. Therefore it is good that he will remain at Bayern while allowing another manager to take over.
Wiesinger will have a hard time finding a competent manager that will choose to stick around for the long term, though.
