Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti was relieved of his duties as Bayern Munich head coach on Thursday following a poor start to the season.

The Bavarian giants lie 3rd in the Bundesliga table, having thrown away a two-goal lead at home to Wolfsburg over the weekend.

The 2-2 draw was followed up by a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. The former Real Madrid boss was sacked the next day.

Ancelotti won the Bundesliga title in his first season in Germany, ending the season with a 15-point lead over 2nd placed RB Leipzig.

He leaves the club with an impressive win rate of 70% and is already being linked with a number of top jobs across Europe.

"The performance of our team since the start of the season did not meet the expectations we put to them," said Bayern's chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in an official club statement.

However, the Bayern Munich club president has since revealed more details surrounding the Italian's shock departure.

Five players turn against Ancelotti

Ancelotti was sacked by the club on Thursday and Bayern Munich's president Uli Hoeness told Westfalenpost why he had to be fired.

The 58-year-old's position was deemed untenable after "five important players" turned against him.

“As coach, you can’t have your most prominent players as enemies,” Hoeness said, as per Westfalenpost.

“In my life, I’ve learned a saying: the enemy in your own bed is the most dangerous. That’s why we had to act.

“The fact that, in my view, in the past few days the coach turned five important players against him – [Kingsley] Coman, too, whom he also didn’t let play – at a stroke, he never would have made it.”

Hoeness didn't name the five players but Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller and Arjen Robben have all voiced their discontent in the early stages of the 2017/18 campaign, with the latter refusing to back Ancelotti after the 3-0 defeat in Paris.

Asked if he still backed his manager after starting from the bench, Robben replied "I won’t answer this question.

"The lineup is the coach’s business. I will say nothing about it. Every word in this case would be one too many."