Something seriously wrong with the German FA to have both teams fail to get out of the group stages
Arrogance, complacency, self-aggrandisment, and delusion. A lowering of standards.
I live in Berlin. German football's biggest problem is it still hasn't accepted that it has a problem. Pep Guardiola made such an impression here during his time at Bayern - despite failing three times in Europe with a side that was European champions when he inherited it - that German football has spent the last decade imagining itself as some kind of Teutonic Tiki-Taka powerhouse rather than the sad Lidl knock-off it actually is. This has coincided with the promotion of flashy, inadequate serial failures at international level - Leroy Sane, Timo Werner, Joshua Kimmich - as "stars", when they wouldn't lace the boots of the genuine articles German football took for granted. But those heroes reflected characteristics that many of today's Germans are less likely to elevate: never-say-die spirit, mental toughness, ruthlessness... Who wants to see themselves as ruthless when they can be feted as a delicate, technical tyro representing a new Germany? It's as if the German forgot that their greatest players were both ruthless and technically superior: Beckenbauer, Breitner, Rummenigge, Schuster, Matthäus, Sammer...
There was a cultural change here. The "old values" were thrown out. This was fine as long as they had the players to play the Iberian way. For a while, they had Kroos. And Thomas Müller could have played in any era. But the likes of Kimmich and Havertz are a joke, by comparison. This may seem unfair, but to be a great German player you need to win a World Cup or European Championship. These guys are, instead, getting eliminated at the group stages or first knock-out round - continuously. There's a hint, whisper it, that perhaps even the Champions League success that some of these players enjoyed might have had rather a lot to do with foreign team-mates...
As for the women, I was staggered at the amount of times Martina Voss-Tecklenburg was the guest analyst on Champions League or Bundesliga shows in the last few years. She's everywhere on German football tv shows. What has she won? A single Champions League in 2009. Nothing at international level, and she's been at that level since 2012. She's the biggest loser today because we are very unlikely to see her on our screens from now on...
As for next summer's European Championship, I would expect Germany to bomb out in the group - again. These players are under scrutiny now, and the likes of Kimmich won't hack that pressure. Hansi Flick has failed to see the writing on the wall and persevered with tried and trusted failures. He's lucky to still be in a job. The fact that he is - and that he sticks by consistent underachievers - tells you all you need to know about Germany's chances next summer at home. Complacency, inertia, and incompetence at the DFB has led to this. It will be richly deserved.
