Cup out, Champions League out and now championship out? In Munich, you don’t seem to know what to do with your feelings these days. When it comes to the Bundesliga, it is far from over on Säbener Straße. But after the 3-1 defeat in Mainz and the subsequent at least temporary dethronement by Dortmund, the mood among Munich is likely to reach new lows.
Despite everything, CEO Oliver Kahn once again defended the separation from Julian Nagelsmann. “I’ve always talked about long-term goals,” said Kahn on ZDF’s “Aktuelle Sportstudio” on Saturday evening. “It wasn’t just about the goals for the season.” That’s better. Because two of three goals for the season are off the table, the third is in acute danger.
From Kahn’s point of view, it was clear after the final whistle on Saturday who was responsible for the Bundesliga’s descent. “Who was the team that wanted to become German champions?” asked the CEO, according to a report by “Kicker”. “It was definitely not ours,” he answered the question himself.
According to Kahn, a season without even one title would “of course be a disaster for all of us,” the ex-national player clarified on ZDF.
But the former world-class goalkeeper also finds himself confronted with severe criticism of his record and with doubts as to whether he is still the right person as CEO. Kahn emphasized: “There is only one goal for me: to get this season around with the German championship title, so that I can then really attack again next season.” The 53-year-old had already said to “Bild” that he was not wasting a second at the moment “to worry about my contract, it’s always about FC Bayern”.
Of course, most football fans see things differently. According to a Forsa survey commissioned by RTL/ntv, 66 percent of those surveyed who describe themselves as interested in football see sports director Hasan Salihamidži? as the clear scapegoat for the misery. However, almost half of the survey participants (46 percent) also hold Kahn responsible and call for his dismissal.
President Herbert Hainer also does not want to deal with the possible consequences of the current severe sporting crisis at FC Bayern before the end of the season. “We’re concentrating on the German championship first. That will be difficult enough, as we saw today,” he said after the severe setback in the title race. “We’ll talk about everything else later,” announced Hainer, who is also the chairman of the supervisory board.
Kahn, however, “very gladly” accepts the criticism and has “no problem” with it. “I’ve experienced a lot in my career and I know what it means when things don’t go well at Bayern Munich. We all bear responsibility.”
