Kahn insists replacing Nagelsmann with Tuchel was essential

Bayern CEO opted to sack Julian Nagelsmann and bring in Thomas Tuchel to Bayern Munich as the club hopes for a treble this season. Oliver Kahn believes sacking Nagelsmann less than two years after bringing him from RB Leipzig was essential.

"The last few days have been hard for us all,"

Kahn said.

"They certainly weren't easy days, and it's safe to assume there was the odd night where I didn't sleep well.

"That's one side of this job that is no longer fun but unfortunately is part of the business. When you let a head coach go, ultimately there's a person behind that decision.

"Nothing big changed, we all see him as an excellent and very good head coach, and on a personal level we understood each other over the course of the last year and three quarters.

"But it's our responsibility and duty to sort out the sporting success of this club, and so we asked ourselves the question of what's the reason behind the big changes in performance.

"So, this isn't a panic decision. It's got nothing to do with panic. We had a close look at everything, and we took the emotions out of the decisions."

After being beaten 2-1 by Bayer Leverkusen last Sunday, Dortmund moved ahead of the Bavarians at top of the Bundesliga table. The club will face Dortmund next in the Bundesliga, a club Tuchel formerly coached.

"We might have taken the decision on Monday, but we took a chance to look at everything,"

Kahn said.

"It's all about finding out where these big swings in performances come from."

On the reasons for sacking Nagelsmann, Kahn pointed to their last season's Champions League exit at the hands of Villarreal and a 5-0 DFB-Pokal loss to Borussia Monchengladbach.

"The fact is there were vulnerabilities that were hard to understand that kept raising their head over several games, despite the fact we strengthened the squad before the start of the season and have one of best squads in Europe,"

Kahn said.

"The continuity in performance of the team never really got better.

"If you look at the start of the second half of the season, we were often not happy with the performances.

"It's the expectation for a club like Bayern that we are a stable ship, so we started with three 1-1 draws in a row – a tough start to the second half of the season – and you see where we are today. Out of 10 Bundesliga games, we have five wins and three draws. That's not where our expectation levels are.

"That's ultimately why we had to make a decision. The expectations are always at their highest here at Bayern.

"We saw and felt our season targets for this season and next season were in danger, and that's why we came to the decision to let Julian Nagelsmann go. It was a well thought through process, certainly not an emotional decision down to one game."

"Of course, there are nicer things in life. It was frustrating and he was trying to understand. We explained it as we have explained it today.

"He took it on board and understood. The bottom line is it really did not go how we expected things to go."

Kahn also insisted his open-door policy to Bayern's players provided him insight into Nagelsmann's leadership.

"I let players come into my office, have a coffee and listen in,"

he said.

"I think this is one of the strengths of the club. I think everyone had a very clear picture of how the players were feeling and what kind of situation they found themselves in."

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