Julian Nagelsmann has his admirers at Manchester City and the German coach has been full of praise for the way the club have acted this season
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Julian Nagelsmann and Pep Guardiola
Julian Nagelsmann and Pep Guardiola(Image: Getty)
Manchester City this season has been the 'perfect example of perfect work' in how to run a football club, according to Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann. The 37-year-old has already been in coaching for almost a decade and has been on Pep Guardiola's radar for many years.
The two crossed paths in the Champions League when City took on Hoffenheim in 2018 and were set to face off in the Champions League quarter-finals in 2023, only for Bayern Munich to sack Nagelsmann just before the game when a potential Treble was still on the cards.
City went on to win the tie on the way to their own Treble, and while Bayern hung on to win the Bundesliga that year they were deposed the following season by Xabi Alonso's Leverkusen.
Alonso was on a City shortlist when Guardiola was considering his future earlier this season, and Nagelsmann has long been seen as a potential successor at the Etihad. After leaving Bayern, the German has been coach of his country's national team since 2023 and recently extended his deal to stretch to Euro 2028.
Nagelsmann has seen the same fall in standards at City that everyone else has seen this season, with the Blues out of the Champions League at the earliest point since 2012 and struggling to secure a top-four finish in the Premier League.
However, what has captured the coach's attention has been how 'calm' things have been at the football club, with poor results not leading to a breakdown in public relationships or panicked decisions.
"What's happening at Man City is outstanding; not from a sporting perspective, but how calm this club remains," he said. "That's the perfect example of perfect work.
"There's not a single interview expressing a negative opinion. I'd like to see this from other clubs that cause far too much unrest, act far too quickly when it comes to who the right coach is.
"If you always say the coach is most important, the selection process must also be most complex. If companies take two weeks to go through an employee, but sometimes a coach is hired after just one phone call, that's the wrong approach. "
"Man City are doing that to perfection; honouring someone for being very successful, but also accepting the fact there's a phase in which things obviously and inexplicably don't work."