FC Bayern still has six weeks to form the squad for the coming season. The new sports director Christoph Freund is not yet intervening, instead they still have to clarify many questions themselves in Munich before the first competitive games in the Bundesliga and Champions League.
It will be a while before a new era begins for FC Bayern. On September 1st, the Austrian Christoph Freund will take up his new job as sporting director and take over from Hasan Salihamidžić. But that’s not all: it is hoped that a new style will also move into Säbener Straße with it. President Herbert Hainer put it like this in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: In a football world with multi-club ownership, Qatari projects and the Saudi state fund, Freund should lead FC Bayern “a little way” out of the “transfer market madness”.
Means: When it comes to the next Norwegian goal monster, the people of Munich don’t want to be the ones who fail miserably when trying to bid – but rather the ones who discovered it in time and got it. Young talents instead of bidding on (almost) finished stars. With the exception of Jamal Musiala, that has rarely worked in recent years. Freund is predestined for this, after all he discovered the Norwegian original goal monster Erling Haaland during his eight years as sporting director at Red Bull Salzburg.
So much for the new era and potentially bright prospects. The problems lie more in the present and the current madness. The people of Munich really can’t complain that there wasn’t enough to do in the last few weeks before Freund’s first day at work. Such transfer summers can be compared to a jigsaw puzzle: There is an ideal, but the whole picture only becomes apparent when it is complete – i.e. at the end of the transfer period. This requires a lot of patience and the right steps at the right time.
Kim, Kane, Hoeness
The first pieces of the puzzle are already on the Munich table. For example in defence: The injury-prone central defender Lucas Hernández was successfully transferred to Paris St. Germain, in return Kim Min-Jae came from SSC Napoli. A “real guy”, as coach Thomas Tuchel praised the tall South Korean. The transfer payments cancel each other out, theoretically the Munich could send the transfer from Paris straight to Italy. In addition, there is Raphael Guerreiro, who switched from BVB on a free transfer and whom Tuchel already knows from his time in Dortmund. “When Bayern knocked on my door, I did everything I could to come here,” said the left-back, who can also play in midfield. The Englishman Kyle Walker is to come, Benjamin Pavard is to go, so it is reported.
Anyone familiar with jigsaw puzzles knows that the edge is the most important thing. When the frame is finished, the picture is stable for the time being. Applied to the football world, these are the pillars of the team. Because that’s exactly where things went wrong at FC Bayern at the end of last season: inexplicable slumps, endless debates about mentality issues and the discussion about who actually regularly scores goals – all of this should be over when Freund begins his service on Säbener Straße.
Another crucial part is therefore Harry Kane, the captain of the England national team. The soon to be 30-year-old checks off two things on the search list: mentality and center forward. However, the commitment is difficult. Bayern patriarch Uli Hoeneß also plays his part in the fact that the transfer saga will probably not come to an end any time soon. On the sidelines of the training camp at the weekend, he talked about this and that, didn’t want to talk about transfers at all – and then talked extensively about Kane. The fact that the 29-year-old would like to go to Germany and as long as it stays that way, “Tottenham will have to buckle” at some point.
A sentence with consequences, after all it weakens Bavaria’s negotiating position. The already thin line of communication to London is not only strained, but in negotiations it is seldom good to show the other side that you really want something. After all, this increases the price, which should already be at least 100 million euros. The German record champions have never spent so much money on a single player. The question is how far FC Bayern can go. And so Kahn’s successor Jan-Christian Dreesen felt compelled to once again publicly urge restraint. Because the pressure is increasing. Other interests like PSG are already positioning themselves.
New, Summer, Nübel
But not only someone like Harry Kane is missing for the frame of the transfer puzzle. But also Manuel Neuer, who apparently won’t be fit again until the start of the season after breaking his lower leg. It seems extremely questionable when the 37-year-old will be fully resilient again. The club management gives him the time to fully recover. And yet he should remain number one.
That’s why the puzzle starts in the goalkeeper position for the Munich team. Can temporary number one Yann Sommer help out further? Rather not. As the “Kicker” reports, Inter Milan plans to pull the €8 million exit clause. Sommer also does not want to return to the bench as soon as Neuer reports fit. After all, there is also a European Championship coming up next year, in which Sommer wants to stand in goal for Switzerland.
The situation is similar with Alexander Nübel, who after his loan to AS Monaco never wants to move back into the second Bayern row. The question remains: who will guard the Bayern goal next season? Maybe someone completely different? Last reported Georgian mediathat Giorgi Mamardashvili should be signed with an alleged 99 percent probability. The 22-year-old currently still plays for FC Valencia. So far, however, the indications have not been consolidated
Goretzka, Kimmich, somehow Rice?
And what about the midfield center? The squad is huge: Leon Goretzka, Konrad Laimer, Marcel Sabitzer, Ryan Gravenberch. One of them is set to play the defensive position alongside Joshua Kimmich. But none is really ideal for this. Tuchel is reportedly looking to sign someone else after his favorite Declan Rice joined Arsenal for €115m from West Ham. It is questionable whether he will get this wish fulfilled. After all, Hoeneß ruled that out chatting at the weekend.
The question is therefore not who is going to come, but rather who is going. Hardly everyone will play. Tuchel noticeably increased the pressure on Goretzka recently, and according to reports, a departure is conceivable. And Kimmich, who was always considered untouchable, is apparently no longer unsaleable. The big upheaval in midfield is still to come, and there is still no real picture. In addition, the former king transfer Sadio Mané is said to be leaving the club, interest from Saudi Arabia has been rumored.
The transfer task force for Uli Hoeneß, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Thomas Tuchel and Co. is still taking care of this summer. That’s not yet Freund’s problem. The group will continue to puzzle diligently until September – and dig deep into their wallets. Only then does a new era begin for Munich.