Bayern Munich have decided to end their collaboration with coach Thomas Tuchel at the end of the current season despite a contract to 2025, the club said on Wednesday.

Bayern lost their last three games in all competitions, including a 3-0 defeat to league leaders Bayer Leverkusen and have now dropped eight points behind them in the Bundesliga.

They were also beaten 1-0 by Lazio in last week’s Champions League last first leg.

If Bayern can’t overturn a 1-0 deficit to Lazio in the second leg in Munich in March, it would be the German team’s earliest exit from the Champions League since a loss to Liverpool in the pre-quarter final in 2018-19.

Bayern were already knocked out of the German Cup in October by third-division Saarbruecken in one of the competition’s biggest-ever shocks.

Tuchel had taken over in March 2023 from Julian Nagelsmann but despite leading them to the Bundesliga title last season on the final matchday, they have not shown the form this season that saw them dominate German football for the past decade.

Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen said there would a ‘a new direction’ next season with a new coach.

“In a good, open discussion, we came to the decision to end our working relationship by mutual agreement in the summer,” Dreesen said. “Our goal is to pursue a new footballing direction with a new head coach for the 2024/25 season.”

“Until then, every individual at the club is expressly called upon to achieve the maximum possible in the Champions League and Bundesliga.

“I also explicitly hold the team accountable in this regard.”

The coach, who in the past had been in charge at Borussia Dortmund, Paris St Germain and also won a Champions League title with Chelsea in 2021, said his remaining time in Munich would be focused on the remaining goals in the Bundesliga and the Champions League.

His first full season at Bayern had been hit by a string of injuries to key players and by what he had said was a relatively thin squad at the start of the campaign despite the arrival of Bundesliga record signing Harry Kane.

“We have agreed that we will end our working relationship at the end of this season,” Tuchel said. “Until then, I will of course continue to do everything I can with my coaching staff to achieve maximum success.”