After the end of the Champions League, the criticism of CEO Oliver Kahn and sports director Hasan Salihamidžić is getting louder. President Herbert Hainer contradicts rumors that Kahn will be thrown out soon.
In the quarter-finals of FC Bayern Munich against Manchester City, the fans expressed their criticism of the club’s leadership. “Goals may be missed – but not values of the club! Question leadership policy!” read a large poster shortly before the end of the game (1:1). The resentment was apparently directed at sports director Hasan Salihamidžić and CEO Oliver Kahn, who surprised many with the dismissal of coach Julian Nagelsmann at the end of March. Successor Thomas Tuchel could not achieve the hoped-for trend reversal.
Kahn: “We constantly question ourselves”
The short-term sporting goals are in danger – that was the justification with which the FC Bayern management team around Hasan Salihamidžić and Oliver Kahn justified the surprising dismissal of coach Julian Nagelsmann. Thomas Tuchel has now been on the coaching bench for almost a month, and Kahn and Salihamidžić watched from the stands as their team dropped out of the DFB Cup and now the Champions League.
For Bayern, after being eliminated from the cup and Champions League, the only thing that matters is the championship. “I know what it’s like here when goals are not achieved. I’m a very reflective person. I just don’t have much time to think about it at the moment,” said CEO Kahn. “Now the main focus is on what we can still achieve, that is the German championship. We are constantly questioning ourselves. Now our full concentration is on the title that we can still win this season.”
Salihamidžić has full faith in the team and the coach
The sports director also explained that you always question yourself. “We work for the club and try to do the best. Of course you have to live with criticism because the results weren’t there,” said Salihamidžić. “Nevertheless, I’m of course confident because I know what kind of team we have, what kind of coach we have now and we will do everything we can to ensure that success returns in all competitions.”
Haaland or nothing? Kahn and Brazzo with no solution to the storm
Most recently, Kahn and Salihamidžić had repeatedly emphasized the sporting quality of the squad – probably also to avert criticism of their own sporting planning. “It’s definitely not due to the sporting quality,” Kahn had recently rumbled in “Sport Bild”. And when Tuchel was introduced, Kahn and Salihamidžić explicitly praised the quality of their squad. But it was precisely in the striker position that a successor to Robert Lewandowski was missed.
“We tried everything in the run-up to the season to fill the nine, even with a nine, which we saw today, but unfortunately not with us,” said Kahn on Wednesday evening with a direct reference to Haaland. The 22-year-old switched from Borussia Dortmund to Man City last summer for 75 million euros.
Choupo-Moting and Mané not a Lewandowski replacement
“It’s not that easy to fill this position. You can’t just find a number nine like Robert Lewandowski somewhere,” argued Kahn. That is also a question of price. “How many nines are there at the level of Robert Lewandowski? There aren’t many. And if so, that’s in price regions that are extremely high,” said Kahn. But after the “Haaland” idea, there was little creativity and drive in Bavaria’s executive floor to sign a striker under the Haaland and Lewandowski category.
So they had to rely on 34-year-old Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting as the only real option for the center forward position throughout the season. A player that very few would put at the level of “Haaland and Lewandowski”. Despite many goals from the Cameroon national player, the Munich attack lacks a passing station that can also offer playful solutions. New signing Sadio Mané was supposed to solve the storm problems, but he couldn’t get going in Munich and after his Bayern debut he no longer played in the center of the storm. No wonder, the highly gifted winger lacks many qualities that characterize a real “Nine”.
Tuchel wants to uphold FCB’s values
By throwing Nagelsmann out, Kahn and Salihamidžić have now made themselves the target of criticism. There are already rumors that there could be consequences for the management duo in the summer. Jan Åge Fjørtoft said: I was told that it was “an ongoing process” and a “matter of time” before Oliver Kahn, the CEO of FC Bayern, was removed from his post. Newspaper writes on Thursday that Kahn “vibrates brutally”.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the supervisory board, Herbert Hainer, contradicted: “No, these rumors are not true,” said the chairman of the supervisory board, Herbert Hainer, when asked by the German Press Agency.
One thing is clear: the decisions made by Kahn and Salihamidžić are not only viewed critically by the fans. The decision to sack Nagelsmann was also badly received by important players such as Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka and Matthijs De Ligt. When asked about the protest posters in the stadium, coach Thomas Tuchel said: “I can promise the fans that we will take care of the club’s values.” A win against Mainz 05 on Saturday would probably bring some peace of mind.
Source: BR24Sport
04/20/2023
