Oliver Kahn is repeatedly accused of sacking Nagelsmann as Bayern coach too early. Now he is once again defending himself against this - and is not going to miss out on a jab at Hoeness and co.
Unlike Bayern Munich's honorary president Uli Hoeness, Oliver Kahn still does not consider the sacking of coach Julian Nagelsmann in March 2023 to be a mistake. "I've said often enough that we had our reasons at the time," the former CEO told Kahn in a video interview with Bild. The 55-year-old finds it difficult to evaluate such decisions in retrospect.
Club patron Hoeness had recently remarked that the separation - at a time when the club was in with a chance of winning the Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB Cup - had come too soon. After his leave of absence from the record champions, Nagelsmann (36) became national coach and impressed with the team at the home European Championships despite their quarter-final exit.
Hoeness and Rummenigge kicked Ancelotti out
Kahn did not accept the accusation that he had fired a promising coach and added provocatively: "You could just as well say: Was it sensible for Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to sack Carlo Ancelotti at FC Bayern, who then went on to win I don't know how many titles at Real Madrid?" Ancelotti had to leave in the fall of 2017 after just over a year in Munich. Since then, the Italian has won the league twice with Real and the Champions League twice.
"The point is that you always have to look at certain decisions in a chronological context. Back then Julian was club coach at Bayern Munich, today Julian is national team coach," Kahn recalled. "It makes little sense to link the two."
Quiet times at Bayern?
Hoeness had recently said that Bayern had gone through turbulent times at the top of the club and had first had to consolidate after the episode with Kahn at the helm. When asked about this, the former world goalkeeper said that he had never experienced calm times at FC Bayern. "I don't know what quiet times actually look like at FC Bayern and whether they are really conducive to performance."
Kahn said he had experienced 14 fantastic years as a player and almost four years in charge. "Of course, it didn't all go as we had imagined. But at some point it's good and you should leave things as they are."
dpa
