Bayern Munich CEO Oliver Kahn can’t dodge the question. It seems every time he faces reporters, he comes up against the topic: why did FC Bayern sack Julian Nagelsmann in the midst of a treble campaign that is now in tatters?
Such was the case again just ahead of the Schalke game that would result in Bayern’s first commanding performance in some time under Thomas Tuchel.
“I understand that this question would be asked. But we spoke about it enough,” Kahn responded (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “Due to the results and fluctuating performances, we reached a point where we had to act.”
Though Kahn also pointed to injuries and World Cup fallout among the unavoidable external factors behind the team’s recent slide, the executive still seemed to lay the core of the blame at the feet of the former manager.
“We had believed in the future with Julian Nagelsmann. But things developed in a different way that we had imagined. You have to make a decision,” Kahn explained. “The results and the form simply weren’t consistent. We lost a 10-point lead to Dortmund. Just for that, the decision was the right one.”
Nevertheless, if Bayern and Dortmund both win out, it’ll have been a crucially denied penalty to BVB against Bochum on April 28th that will figure large in the final Bundesliga standings. But it remains clear that the bosses had more faith in Tuchel than Nagelsmann to carry the project forward — in spite of the unfortunate circumstances about how the firing was revealed.
“The leak that made it public was out of our control and we didn’t like it,” Kahn said simply.
Results and consistency, then: this will be the clear target of the Tuchel era. It can begin with the securing of an eleventh straight Bundesliga title for the Bavarians.