"In the summer of 2024, after firing Thomas Tuchel, it felt like Bayern got turned down by roughly 27 candidates before settling on Vincent Kompany, who had just been sacked after leading Burnley to relegation. In the summer of 2025, their transfer plans went awry as well when Bundesliga stars like Florian Wirtz ( Liverpool) and Nick Woltemade ( Newcastle United) chose the Premier League over the German giants."
"So having experienced many public failures over multiple summers, Bayern are about a quarter of the way through 2025-26 and are in their best run of form in five years, with 14 wins from 14 games in all competitions. At this moment, at least, Karl has as many combined goals and assists in 290 minutes in all competitions (three) as Wirtz has in 934 with Liverpool."
Bayern Munich recovered from coaching instability and missed transfer targets to start 2025-26 with dominant form. The club pursued several high-profile signings but ended up signing veterans, loaning Nicolas Jackson and promoting 17-year-old Lennart Karl. Karl immediately made an impact, matching rival statistics in far fewer minutes and becoming Bayern's youngest-ever UEFA Champions League scorer before adding another spectacular domestic goal. Bayern sit on 14 wins from 14 games across competitions, their best run in five years, demonstrating effective youth integration and pragmatic squad adjustments despite prior public failures.
Read at ESPN.com
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