Long before its decade of dominance, before the age of discerning decision-makers and deliberate succession plans, before carefully constructed squads swept their way to 10 consecutive Bundesliga titles, Bayern Munich earned an unflattering nickname. It became known as FC Hollywood, and not because it embodied Southern California sunshine. It had, instead, developed a penchant for drama, for mismanagement and distracting headlines that impeded on-pitch success.

“The 1990s,” in the club’s own words, “was a decade of constant turmoil.” For Germany’s biggest, richest, most successful soccer club, it was a reminder that money and stature don’t guarantee success. Dysfunction led to only one major trophy over a span of six seasons — and in that same span, seven coaching changes. Some were understandable, others were rash; all contributed to the mess.

Over subsequent years, Bayern modernized and stabilized. The Bavarians have only once failed to win consecutive Bundesliga titles since. They met constant pressure with rationality. They outspent everybody around them, but also spent wisely, and sent an overarching message to their German rivals: A well-run superclub is borderline untouchable. They rolled along, enduring dips in form with the knowledge that rotten luck would eventually regress to the mean and talent would win out.

Until, last Thursday, they panicked — and imperiled their own cyclical supremacy.

Bayern entered this month’s international break as the clear Bundesliga favorite and, by most metrics, the second-best team in all of Europe. It stormed through a difficult Champions League group, then shut out and knocked out PSG to reach the quarters. Domestically, it has strolled through the DFB Pokal; and while it trails Borussia Dortmund by 1 point in the league, every key predictor of future success, from underlying numbers to raw goal differential, suggested that the remaining nine games would see Bayern return to the summit.

Then, with the biggest games of its season looming, it sacked head coach Julian Nagelsmann — while its players were away on international duty and Nagelsmann was in Austria on a brief vacation with his girlfriend.

And in place of the 35-year-old managerial wunderkind, it hired Thomas Tuchel, a man who has been fired after less than three years by each of his past three clubs.

Oh, and the first of those three clubs? None other than the one he’ll have to beat Saturday (12:30 p.m. ET, ABC) in a decisive showdown atop the Bundesliga: Dortmund.

It’s a script, one might say, straight out of Hollywood.

Nagelsmann's baffling sacking leaves players 'shocked'

Even during the stable years, Bayern churned through coaches, but the churn was often well-thought-out. Jupp Heynckes won a Champions League, then stepped aside for Pep Guardiola, who stayed three years then handed over the keys to Carlo Ancelotti. Ancelotti turned out to be an incompatible fit, but his ouster, and later that of Nico Kovac, occurred early in seasons.

Nagelsmann, though, was supposed to be a long-term solution. He was a boyhood Bayern fan who grew up outside the club, into one of global soccer’s most sought-after coaches. In 2021, Bayern paid what was essentially a $30 million transfer fee to procure Nagelsman from RB Leipzig. And they handed him a five-year contract. They agreed to pay him roughly $9 million per season. In total, this was a nearly unprecedented $75 million commitment.

And the early returns were not terrible; they were mixed. Bayern won last season’s Bundesliga comfortably, albeit not always impressively. It got upset in the 2022 Champions League quarters, but its early stage performances had been perfect; and its underlying numbers, in all competitions, very strong.

Year 2 brought challenges and hiccups. Still, with another unblemished Champions League record, and with a quarterfinal against Manchester City looming, and with the Bundesliga title well within reach, there were absolutely no indications that the club’s faith in Nagelsman was wavering — and not many indications that this marriage, between prodigy and prodigious club, wouldn’t be a fruitful one for years to come.

In fact, just last Monday, Bayern chairman Herbert Hainer told German magazine Kicker that the club was “planning with [Nagelsmann] for the long term" because he was "tactically and strategically excellent.” Any doubts, Hainer said, stemmed from outside the club.

So, naturally, many within the club were “shocked” when the news of Nagelsmann’s firing leaked to German media. That’s how players found out, and so too Nagelsmann himself.

Bayern confirmed it one day later and defended the decision, in both on-the-record comments and background conversations with reporters. CEO Oliver Khan explained that, since the World Cup, "the big fluctuations in performance have cast doubt on our goal for this season, but also our goals for the future. That is why we have acted now.” A fuller picture, although a one-sided one, emerged via numerous German outlets: Some senior players — though not Joshua Kimmich — had reportedly grown concerned with many things, from Nagelsmann’s training methods to his romantic relationship with a now-former journalist who used to cover the team for German tabloid Bild.

But there was, according to reports, another baffling reason for this out-of-nowhere course correction. Bayern brass had apparently zeroed in on Tuchel, a Munich resident, as a potential Nagelsmann successor, perhaps as soon as the summer. They then grew fearful that Tuchel might take another job if they didn’t pull the trigger now — so they did.

Bayern's rational era coming to an end?

This, above all else, is the most worrying aspect of a truly ludicrous decision: That Bayern would feel compelled by potentially unfounded fears related to a potential successor, so compelled that it would uproot its charge for a treble.

The Bavarians could still win it, of course. But, with Tuchel having just a few days to work with a full squad before the Dortmund game, they also might not.

And then they’d be stuck without a streak or a long-term plan; and, suddenly, without their reputation as a well-run model among soccer’s superelite.

It was a decision with far more downside than upside, and it harkened back to a previous era of shortsightedness.

It also raised the stakes Saturday, when the Allianz Arena will fill, and when business could resume as if uninterrupted … or the Bayern machine could begin to crumble.