Champions falter as high-profile fallouts hit Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Milan

Bundelsliga, Premier League and Serie A title winners all dealing with player problems as they bid to defend their crowns

Manchester City defender Joao Cancelo has completed a transfer deadline day move to Bayern Munich on a loan deal until the end of the season. AFP

Joao Cancelo of Manchester City in action against Mohamed Daramy of Copenhagen during a Uefa Champions League Group G game in October 2022. EPA

Manchester City's Joao Cancelo celebrates scoring against Southampton in the Premier League in October 2022. PA

Southampton's James Ward-Prowse and Manchester City's Joao Cancelo battle for the ball in a Premier League match. PA

Manchester City's Erling Haaland celebrates with teammate Joao Cancelo after scoring against Southampton. PA

Manchester City's Joao Cancelo takes on FC Copenhagen's Elias Jelert in a Champions League clash. AFP

Dortmund's Karim Adeyemi and Manchester City's Joao Cancelo. AFP

Manchester City's Joao Cancelo is sent off against Fulham. PA

Portugal's Joao Cancelo battles with Uruguay's Mathias Olivera at the Qatar 2022 World Cup. AP

South Korea's Lee Jae-sung fights for the ball with Portugal's Joao Cancelo during the Qatar 2022 World Cup. AFP

Joao Cancelo of Portugal controls the ball against Hakim Ziyech of Morocco at the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Getty

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola shouts at Portuguese defender Joao Cancelo. AFP

Manchester City's Joao Cancelo and Southampton's Adam Armstrong. PA

Manchester City's Joao Cancelo controls the ball. AFP

Manchester City's Joao Cancelo in action with Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes. Reuters

Manchester City's Joao Cancelo. AP

As he begins his 23rd year attached to Bayern Munich, Thomas Muller is entitled to act as wise spokesman on controversies and how they are part of the fabric of Germany’s most decorated club.

“When I was young and not yet in the senior team, I used to quite enjoy a bit of noise around the club,” the 33-year-old reflected. “It need not affect the team.”

Back when Muller was a gangly pre-teenager buzzing around Bayern’s junior sides, there was so much noise the nickname ‘FC Hollywood’ stuck to them. Trophies were won as superstars made off-field headlines as internal rows played out in public.

Muller recognised some of that in events since new year, set off by the explosive comments from various interviews given by Bayern captain Manuel Neuer.

Neuer had already starred in an FC Hollywood moment by breaking his leg skiing on returning with the German national team from their first-round World Cup exit. His angry remarks about a significant change of personnel at Bayern set a fresh agenda. The goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalovic, a friend and long-time colleague of Neuer’s, was sacked last month. Neuer called it a “crass” decision. “It felt like my heart was being ripped out.”

Within the Bayern hierarchy, Neuer has been criticised for speaking out against management. His future as captain is loudly questioned by former players, and even the 36-year-old’s future in the team now that Swiss international Yann Sommer, bought from Borussia Monchengladbach to cover Neuer’s lengthy recuperation, has signed a two-and-a-half year contract.

Had events on the field been going better, the storm may not have been so fierce. But the fact is, like several of the reigning champions in Europe’s major leagues in the period since a winter World Cup interrupted established routines, a fractured relationship at the top of the club has coincided with wobbling form.

That may be a symptom of tensions arising from indifferent form; but when performances dip, a behind-the scenes clash is easily identified as the cause of a slump.

Bayern, Bundesliga champions for each of the last 10 seasons, have won just one of their four league fixtures since their domestic season resumed. Before the World Cup break, they were six points clear at the top; the lead is down to a point.

Bayern Munich captain Manuel Neuer after winning the Bundesliga last season. AFP

Besides Sommer, Bayern made another unscheduled addition to their squad in January. Quite what Joao Cancelo, signed from Manchester City, makes of the row over Neuer and Tapalovic is his business, but Cancelo does have insight into how a club legend – as Neuer is – can abruptly fall from favour. It happened to Cancelo at City.

For much of his Premier League career he was the epitome of what City manager Pep Guardiola admires in a footballer: technical excellence with the intelligence to interpret his position beyond its conventional definitions.

Cancelo at City was the right-back with a midfielder’s vision who became not only the solution to a problem left-back role but made it a platform for man-of-the-match displays in high-stakes games.

But, post-World Cup, Cancelo’s status in Guardiola’s hierarchy plunged. The move to Bayern is a loan, but the expectation is that Cancelo can consider his playing relationship with City over.

The Cancelo exit might invite less scrutiny if City’s defence of their league title had not been suffering damage. In 2023 they have already been beaten twice as often — with losses against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur — in the Premier League in their remarkably consistent run-in to the title during 2022. They trail Arsenal, who have a match in hand, by five points.

Rafael Leao's contract at AC Milan comes to an end next year. Reuters

They also have the shadow of Premier League accusations of financial irregularities hanging over the club, charges that City deny on all fronts.

The most alarming plummet by a defending champion is in Italy, where AC Milan have won only once in eight matches. Since the turn of the year they have dropped from second place in the table to sixth, 18 points behind runaway leaders Napoli. There is a clear schism at Milan too, an emblematic player at odds with the hierarchy.

Last season, Rafael Leao was voted Player of the Year in Serie A for his livewire presence up front, the goals and assists he contributed to the seizing of the scudetto.

Leao remains Milan’s highest scorer and assister this term but since he was substituted by manager Stefano Pioli in the 4-0 loss to Lazio and surprisingly left out of the starting line-up for the next two defeats, he has not added to those tallies.

In the background is a contractual tug-of-war. Milan are pushing Leao, 23, to renew a deal that expires next year; the striker knows he is coveted by Premier League clubs. He may be on his way this summer. Pioli, architect of last season’s title triumph, must fear that if form does not turn around, his remaining time in charge could be even shorter.