There were a few friendly hugs but no tears as Sadio Mane left Bayern Munich's Asia tour for Saudi Arabia. Everyone involved was just relieved when the end of an error finally came earlier this week.
The German champions thought they had pulled off a real heist, seizing the Senegalese international from Liverpool for €35million (£30.1m; $38.2m) last summer. By the end of a disappointing first season, however, they had become desperate to offload the forward. Mane and Bayern hadn't worked out on any level.
As ever in these inquests, the importance of luck, or rather bad luck, should not be underestimated. Mane, remember, had initially taken to life in the Bundesliga rather well. Playing mostly as a right-sided forward in Julian Nagelsmann's 4-2-2-2 system, he scored 11 goals by the end of October in all competitions and could have almost doubled that if marginal offsides calls had gone his way.
Then he got injured. A knee problem ruled him out for the World Cup and until the end of February. He never regained full fitness in spring, only finding the goal once in 15 games, and was suspended for one match after slapping Sane in the dressing room in the aftermath of Bayern's 3-0 defeat at Manchester City.
Bayern's troubles behind the scenes and on the pitch also weren't conducive to a successful season for the new recruit. Like almost every other player in the squad, Mane struggled to play anywhere near his regular form in a chaotic campaign that saw Nagelsmann sacked and Thomas Tuchel take over in March.
Bayern's big and rather ambitious plan for the season — to replace chief goalscorer Robert Lewandowski with a collective of hybrid strikers — failed spectacularly. Adding another wide attacker to a side that already had its fair share of wingers was designed to increase the competition for starting berths. But instead of pushing everyone, the oversupply of similar types and constant changes only bred uncertainty. Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry, Kingsley Coman and even youngster Jamal Musiala all fell well short of their usual best. Things took another turn for the worse when veteran centre-forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting became unavailable due to a knee complaint. Mane's uninspired performances after his return from injury did little to alleviate problems up front, but he was as much of a victim of circumstances as those around him.
And he wasn't all bad, either. His statistical attacking output for the season still looked quite respectable, even if his high carry and dribble volume masked a very average success rate in getting past opponents. His passing was unspectacular, and his defensive impact was also unremarkable, especially for a player famous for his hard work off the ball.
Yet on the whole, club officials — who spoke to The Athletic at length on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships — were disappointed. While some had noted with concern that there had been a few ups and downs for him during his last season at Liverpool, they had nevertheless expected the vastly experienced, well-travelled professional to have a very sustained impact and positive effect on the side. In June 2023, sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic had called Mane “a mentality monster”, and CEO Oliver Kahn praised him as “a top player” destined to “lift the quality of everybody else.” (Both were sacked at the end of the season, a mere minute after Bayern had surprisingly won the league again.)
The exact reasons why Mane wasn't able to show his considerable quality more regularly are still a bit of a mystery to those who saw him at close quarters. One well-placed source felt that the malaise was mostly tactical in nature, as Mane was rarely played in his preferred position on the left and often found himself in congested spaces, unable to call upon his trademark dynamic play on transition. The counter-argument to that is that he had played well through the middle under Jurgen Klopp in spells in 2021-22. And Liverpool had of course become used to breaking down deeper defences over the years, so playing in a team dominating possession can't have been that much of a shock to the system.
Perhaps his failure to settle had more to do with his position in the dressing-room hierarchy. Players and club employees alike soon noticed that Mane was quite a sensitive player who thrived on the praise from the manager and the trust of his team-mates. They tried to help him bed in by letting him take penalties. Neither Nagelsmann nor Tuchel were in a position to back Mane unconditionally, though; there was simply too much competition for that.
His form not just in matches but also in training noticeably suffered as the season wore on. A more emotional type of man-management might have seen him more comfortable at Sabener Strasse but, by the time of his physical altercation with Sane in April, he cut a rather isolated figure in the dressing room. Colleagues understood his frustration and sensed that he was low on confidence. But they didn't believe his performances warranted any special treatment.
Ultimately, it's futile to attach much blame to either party for the unsuccessful liaison. Bayern's and Mane's great misfortune was getting together in the worst season both experienced in well over a decade. Far from taking each other to new heights, the Champions League and the Ballon D'Or, they pulled each other further down. There's only one cure for such misery: the parting of ways.
Chances are that both parties will be much happier without each other — and soon back to their best.