Niko Kovac’s departure “by mutual consent” from Bayern Munich took almost as long as his 16-month spell on the bench. In truth, it has felt inevitable for quite some time.



At the end of November 2018, in the wake of a defeat by Borussia Dortmund and an embarrassing 3-3 draw at home to Fortuna Dusseldorf, the bosses at club HQ Sabener Strasse had given serious thought to the Croatian’s dismissal.



The champions were playing bland, unstructured football. There were incessant misgivings about Kovac’s limited tactical input — he notably told the team he was relying on their ‘automatisms’ from the Louis van Gaal era (2009-2011) in attack — and complaints about poor man-management emanating from the dressing room. One senior player compared the coach’s training to that of Carlo Ancelotti. It wasn’t meant as a compliment.



But then the team started winning. They beat Benfica 5-1 to save Kovac from...