BAYERN MUNICH
https://thedailybriefing.io/i/141030193/bayern-munich
Bayern Munich have completely pulled out of talks for Kieran Trippier of Newcastle United. On Wednesday, Bayern’s sporting director, Christoph Freund, confirmed as much, despite having reached an agreement with the player after initial talks the prior Friday. On Saturday, the talks with Newcastle started and Bayern were looking for a loan. Newcastle, of course, amid their struggles with Financial Fair Play were looking to make a sale, so, at the end on Tuesday, Bayern came up with a €15m offer, which was much more than what they wanted to spend. Newcastle said no and I can understand why, as €15m is not so much for a key player from an English club.
I heard Trippier also demanded a €10m-a-year salary. The package then for a 33-year-old player was too high for Bayern Munich, so they decided to move away from Trippier. It’s not clear, as things currently stand, whether they’ll make another pass at Nordi Mukiele because the situation is quite similar. He’s much younger of course but, at the end, they also want him on a loan deal and PSG only want to comply if there’s a buy option included. Bayern officials are aware that they’re approaching the end of January and Noussair Mazraoui and Kim Min-jae (at the AFCON and Asian Cup respectively) are potentially set to return in the near future, so the question of why they should spend a lot of money for new players has been posed. The new head of sport, Max Eberl, will begin his job in March (latest on April 1). So, he has to decide then what direction Bayern goes in. They’re still looking, though it’s possible they won’t do any business at right-back.
Joshua Zirkzee - who is attracting interest from Arsenal and Tottenham - is already in talks with United, and Bayern are curious to see if Bologna are interested in selling him to any English club. Bayern have a clause that would allow them to get 50% of any transfer fee agreed.
Zirkzee during the meeting between Florence and Bologna - (Photo by Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)
Leon Goretzka is still fighting for his position in Bayern’s team. They don’t want to sell him and he didn’t want to go last summer. But now he’s encountering a lot of difficulties when it comes to earning a spot in Thomas Tuchel’s first-team. When asked, he says he has no other plans and wants to play his football in Munich, but in the background, there are rumours that he is now more open-minded in terms of a change than he was in the summer. In the past, there was interest from Manchester United and what we heard is that in the back of Goretzka’s mind, he’s thinking about this option if his current circumstances won’t change. Tuchel always sees Raphael Guerreiro as being ahead of him, which Goretzka really isn’t happy about!
There is a player in Bayern’s squad, Frans Krätzig - a German player in the youth team - who can play left-back very well. Standard Liège tried to get him on loan this winter but both sides refused. Bayern also needs him as a substitute for Davies in future. I heard also Premier League clubs are watching this big talent, so we have to keep our eye on him!
Bayern Munich lost a lot of coaches very early in the past, which isn’t normal for the club! They’re trying to keep hold of Thomas Tuchel and push for success but in the end you have to see that the only title he won last year out of three when he started was the German title and this was a present from Dortmund - Bayern didn’t necessarily earn it themselves! This year he’s also second and he also saw Bayern get knocked out of the DFB Pokal, so if he doesn’t bring one title, he will be the first coach in the last 12 years to not win something. This could be the end of Tuchel at Bayern Munich. The bosses at Bayern are also always irritated by his interviews when he talks about the squad not being strong enough or him not knowing what to do now despite players not matching their strong training performances with their performances in the games. The crazy thing is, one year ago, Julian Nagelsmann had similar thoughts and he told the bosses - at this point they changed their mind and that was the beginning of the end of Nagelsmann.
Thomas Tuchel, head coach at Bayern Munich - (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
There was an interview he gave where he mentioned that he had a lot more respect during his time in England compared to Germany. Naturally, this wasn’t so good when the bosses in Germany heard this as they felt they gave him all the tools to succeed, including Harry Kane and a really expensive squad and they’re not seeing any development. On the other hand, he’s saying he’s confident but we know in the back of his mind he’s always thinking about England. He was always keen on the job at Manchester United and you see that Erik ten Hag is not so settled at the moment. If Ten Hag lost his job in the summer and the crisis at Bayern Munich is still ongoing, this could be a good situation for everyone.
Marco Neppe was important in the past for Bayern Munich; he was the right-hand man of Hasan Salihamidžić. In the prior summer window, his importance remained as he was the only man who knew about the contract situations at the club when the new bosses made the transfers. So he was onboard when Jan-Christian Dreesen was engaging in talks with Daniel Levy over Harry Kane. So you see how important he was. However, since Freund came in, things have changed. In the transfer window, Neppe was on holiday whilst Freund was handling the transfer front. On Monday he had talks with the CEO, Dreesen, and it became clear it doesn’t make sense for him to remain for the future. He wants a new challenge, so he’s leaving when Max Eberl will be coming. I’m not sure where we’ll see him go next. He came from Leverkusen and will have interested suitors. There were rumours that Tottenham have an eye on him, so perhaps this could happen now that he’s on the market.
