Dino Toppmoller has said that he was left “stunned” by his exit from RC Lens last month. He left the Ligue 1 club by mutual consent having taken charge of just six official games.

Toppmoller beat Paris Saint-Germain in the Trophée des Champions and also won Lens’ UEFA Champions League opener against Slavia Prague last week. He also took charge of four games in Ligue 1, with the club currently sitting in 10th with just one win in that time.

Announcing the departure of the former Eintracht Frankfurt manager, Lens explained that the end of their collaboration is due to the club’s restructuring plans. Toppmoller did not share the same vision as his executives on this matter, and so the decision was taken to part ways. Lens wanted to offload one of the two assistants that Toppmoller brought with him to the club, Nelson Morgado.

Speaking on the Spielmacher von 360Media (via L’Équipe) podcast, Toppmoller revisited the situation. “To find yourself confronted by the fact that, if your assistant remained an assistant, you yourself were sacked, was a blow,” said the German. The former Eintracht Frankfurt manager also described his exit as “a big disappointment and a shock” and added that he was “stunned”.

On Morgado specifically, Toppmoller said that he was “too demanding, too loud, [and] in conflict with too many people”. The German was swiftly replaced at Lens by Yannick Cahuzac, who has been promoted from his role as an assistant on an interim basis.