If you ever need anyone to throw gasoline on an already towering inferno of dumpster fires, we have your man: Bayern Munich legend — and current supervisory board member — Uli Hoeneß.
When asked by kicker’s Franck Linkesch (as captured by @iMiaSanMia) how the exit interview went with Kahn, Hoeneß was as honest as he could be:
Uli Hoeneß to @kicker on the talks with Oliver Kahn over his dismissal: “It wasn’t a pleasant conversation.”
Was it a mistake to appoint Kahn in the first place?
Hoeneß: “In retrospect, you have to say so.”
Yikes.
Hoeneß, though, did not pile on Kahn like you might expect. Hoeneß does still respect for former goalkeeping great and CEO.
“Oliver is a highly intelligent man whom you enjoy to talk to. The big disappointment is that I thought he could do the job on his own because of his personality, but instead he surrounded himself with his advisors,” Hoeneß said. “I have great respect for the person, as a player he has done a lot. Even though he did not meet expectations as CEO, my door is for Oliver always open. We need calm, not the total hecticness that has prevailed lately.”
Hoeneß went even further to absolve Kahn from much of the true blame for how things played out as well. In fact, Hoeneß essentially said that Kahn surrounded himself with people who created the “unrest” and “bad atmosphere” at the club.
Hoeneß says Kahn’s advisors in the background were responsible for the unrest, “the catastrophically bad atmosphere” at the club and an increasing lack of motivation.
It would be interesting to know who those advisors were and why they had such influence, but Hoeneß also told kicker that Kahn and sporting director Hasan “Brazzo” Salihamidžić would have been fired even if they won the treble.
“We would have acted the same way even with three titles, this decision had to be made. (New Bayern Munich CEO Jan-Christian) Dreesen knows the club inside out, a new man would have had to get used to it for half a year,” Hoeneß said.
So, if Kahn was not necessarily the “bad guy” in the scenario and he was getting sacked either way, why didn’t Bayern Munich at least let him attend the team’s championship celebrations.
Well, kicker has a story for you:
During the conversations over his dismissal, Oliver Kahn verbally attacked new CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen — that’s why Kahn was told not to travel with the team to Köln in order to avoid further escalation.
FC Hollywood, right?