It’s not often that we say it, but Bayern Munich might be having a bit of an internal crisis right now.

After crashing out of the UEFA Champions League to Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals, it emerged over the weekend that manager Hansi Flick has informed the club that he wants to leave in the summer.

After winning everything there is to win in his season-and-a-half in charge of the club, you could maybe understand if he just wanted a new challenge but it seems there is something more to the situation.

Despite beating PSG in Paris their European Cup defence came to an end but they bounced back at the weekend with a 3-2 win over Wolfsburg. What nobody saw coming was in the press conference after the game when Flick confirmed to the press that he wanted to leave the club at the end of the season.

It had been rumoured that Flick was the number one target for the German national team after it was announced that Joachim Löw will leave his role after the completion of the Euro 2020 tournament this summer.

While he has admitted that the national team role is of interest to him, it isn’t the reason he wants to leave the Bundesliga champions.

Hansi Flick to @iMiaSanMia: “Yes, of course German National Team is an option that every coach has to consider. But for me the last few weeks have not been easy”. He’s joining DFB after the Euros.

More: as of today, Bayern Munich board have not approached Massimiliano Allegri. https://t.co/JzTTLOU6KT

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) April 17, 2021

According to reports in Germany, there is an internal struggle happening in Bavaria. It is well known that the club is run in such a way that the manager of the club is responsible only for the coaching of the football team.

The board and executives run the club off the pitch and former midfielder Hasan Salihamidzic is the man in charge of things like transfers. That is the start of issues.

Flick and Salihamidzic have been at loggerheads of the future of the playing squad, with the Bosnian confirming that Jerome Boateng would not be offered a new contract for the new season regardless of his performances in the run-in.

What made it worse was the fact that he was informed of the decision on the morning of the first-leg against Paris Saint-Germain. Add to that the fact the club have refused to agree a new deal with David Alaba, forcing the Austrian to confirm his exit from the club in advance on a free transfer.

Bayern have since commented on Flick’s announcement only to discount it, stating that they will continue to hold talks with the manager up to and at the end of the season to discuss the future. While it’s highly unlikely that anything will change, this is just Bayern’s way of controlling the narrative.

Reports suggest they have already begun the search for a new manager, with Julian Nagelsmann top of their shortlist. While it will be incredibly difficult to take the highly rated boss away from Leipzig, the Bundesliga is essentially Bayern Munich’s playground and they can pretty much do what they want.

If for some reason that doesn’t happen, they have plenty of options elsewhere. Flick was brought up from their coaching staff, while top names like Max Allegri and Jose Mourinho are also available immediately.

Bayern are a superbly run club, everyone knows that. But now their internal power struggle is going to cost them a supremely talented coach and potentially effect who they bring in to replace him.