Oliver Kahn not totally happy with Julian Nagelsmann’s first season at Bayern Munich

While Julian Nagelsmann did lead Bayern Munich to another Bundesliga title last season, the exits from both the DFB-Pokal and Champions League were difficult pills to swallow and put an asterisk on his maiden season managing the club. After a decent start to the Hinrunde, Bayern’s Rückrunde saw the club experience a bit of a slump and Nagelsmann also had to deal with a plethora of injuries and COVID cases in the beginning of 2022, which didn’t make matters any easier for him.

Now, Bayern has had a decent transfer window having already brought in Noussair Mazraoui, Ryan Gravenberch, and Sadio Manè, with Juventus’ Matthijs de Ligt also in the running to potentially join this summer. The squad has been strengthened with the aforementioned additions, and because of this, CEO Oliver Kahn does expect more from Nagelsmann this season than he saw last season. Per a new report from kicker, it has become clear that Kahn was only “partially pleased” with Nagelsmann’s exploits last season, which you’d be hard pressed to find many Bayern fans to disagree with that sentiment.

In addition to the signings Bayern have already made this summer, a new video wall has been installed at Sabener Strasse as well as high-tech cameras and curtain systems for analysis and privacy purposes. Nagelsmann has been very well known to be a big advocate for the video boards, which he’s previously used at both TSG Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig in concert with his staff of video analysts. Because of these additions, the bar of expectation for Nagelsmann has raised even higher, which obviously comes with the territory of being manager of FC Bayern München.

“We also signed Julian because of his playing philosophy. We expect him to introduce and develop young players,” Kahn said when he asked about the Bayern manager. Ironically enough, it was Kahn and Hasan Salihamidžić that both quickly denied the Cristiano Ronaldo rumors, with Kahn citing the fact that signing the 37 year old star would not mesh well with Bayern’s “philosophy” of trying to emphasize the development of the younger players like Paul Wanner or Jamal Musiala.

Kahn also feel that the new signings will be a positive, but ultimately, it will be up to Nagelsmann to get the balance squad right. There will certainly, at times, be players unhappy to not be selected in the starting lineup, but the competitiveness is something Kahn feels will be good for Nagelsmann and the club. “It is necessary to create competitive situations and send out signals, especially after the last second half of the season, which didn’t live up to what we expected,” Kahn explained. “We are doomed to succeed at Bayern, he knows that too,” Kahn added, knowing that Nagelsmann is well aware of the pressure that’s on him to succeed and improve upon last season.