Heynckes ready for Celtic test after four-year absence
Hosting Celtic would tend to be a Champions League fixture of the common-orgarden variety for Bayern Munich. Tonight’s Group B encounter is not – because the club’s boss Jupp Heynckes has been tending his own land for the past four years.
The fascinating aspect of the tie for the home side is the return of the avuncular 72-year-old to the scene he left as a winner. The meeting with Celtic will be his first Champions League experience since he led Bayern to a final victory over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley in 2013, on his way to a treble achieved against the backdrop of his club deciding to pension him off to make way for Pep Guardiola.
Yesterday,atajocularmedia briefing, he spoke of spending the last four years minding his farm, walking his dog, and talking to his wife. He did so with no thoughts of retaining any involvement in football; even in terms of punditry work, never mind pitchside.
Heynckes – one of only three men to win the Champions League with two different clubs after his 1998 triumph with Real Madrid – is back for a fourth spell in charge because of his personal relationship with Bayern president Uli Hoeness. And because he has always been perceived as a steadying influence whenever Bayern have listed – as the club felt had happened under the deposed Carlos Ancelotti when Paris Saint-germain thumped them 3-0 in the Champion League three weeks ago. Heynckes, who dissolved into a high-pitched laughter at one point in yesterday’s conference, has no doubts what makes for the mutual appreciation society he enjoys with the squad at the Bavarian behemoths.
“There has to be a common respect between the players and coach,” said Heyneck maintaining he “never” looks back to past successes. “You have to work together in training. I demand a lot in training, I am very precise in all aspects.
“The players have to get used to that. This is how I worked in the past and the details make the different success or not. You need discipline in life and work. The content of training has to be transformed on to the pitch. My players know that, they understand how I work and it’s a lot of fun.
I take a lot of fun from how the players get involved.”
The reality is that Bayern expect to have fun against Celtic tonight after Heynckes’ return to the technical area at the weekend brought a 5-0 victory over Freiburg – the club’s first in four outings – that still left him “critical over many aspects”.
Heynckes made all the right noises about not “underestimating” Brendan Rodgers’ side and about how Celt- ic’s draws away to Manchester City and Borussia Moenchengladbach last season “tell you everything you need to know about a good, positive team”. But he deviated from the platitudes in ruminating about past encounters against Scottish teams that proved challenging: playing in a Gladbach team that beat Aberdeen 9-3 on aggregate in 1972 Uefa Cup giving way to him managing his hometown club when they lost 5-0 to Dundee United in 1981 Uefa Cup and in the semi-finals. of 1987 Uefa Cup to the Tannadice club.
“That was 40 or nearly 50 years ago. Scottish football has had highs and lows and difficulties also at an international level but it has always been a way to play football that has had success. They brought on a lot of star players as well,” said Heynckes, manager of Bayern when they put Hearts out of the Uefa Cup in 1989 despite losing at Tynecastle and in charge when Rangers were beaten 3-1 on aggregate in the European Cup later that year.
“I think that if you look at Scotland now it’s always difficult to maintain a high level and to be competitive in the Champions League and make it past the group stage, because if you look at the transfer window you see how crazy it has become and how difficult it is even for well-established teams and clubs to keep up their momentum.
“Look at Paris, or the English teams. They just invest in horrific numbers. Manchester City and Manchester United invested a lot of money, 600 million euros, that’s just crazy. Clubs like Celtic and others like Anderlecht can’t keep up.”