Bayern Munich, winners of 33 Bundesliga titles, six European Cups, 20 German Cups, and by far the biggest club in their country, have hired the manager of Burnley, a team who have just been convincingly relegated from the Premier League.
Vincent Kompany's deal to become the new Bayern coach has now been made official, and his appointment is as surprising as they come. This is a manager who has just four years of coaching experience, one of which came in the English second division. He has never coached a Champions League game, and his sole European campaign ended with a Conference League qualifying loss.
Kompany shouldn't be faulted for taking the job, even if it feels like a massive jump. He is a promising manager, who, at 38, still has the chance to become a great one. Give him a few seasons at mid-level clubs, let him build on and further mould his ideas, and he might someday be ready for a job as big as the Bayern one. But this all feels like it's happening way too soon.
More broadly, though, it speaks to the mess that Bayern are in. The Bavarians have burned through managerial targets since making the decision to let Thomas Tuchel go at the end of the season in February. After months of scouring Europe for potential targets, hunting down big names, and failing over and over again, they are left with a manager who seems underqualified and unprepared for a job of this magnitude.