MUTU

I'm not getting into a PL vs BL debate either, but I'm just pointing out that the scientific/scholarly meaning of "competitiveness" or rather "competitive balance" goes much, much further than how often a specific club is winning its own domestic league. For example, the Bundesliga is one of the trickiest league to predict who the top 4 (i.e. CL entrants) will be at the start of a given season... in fact no other country consistently puts forward more distinct CL participants than the Bundesliga. What the Premier League excels in, hands down, is the low predictability of who will finish champion, though lately Man City seem determined to start breaking this trend. That's what gives the allure to the fans. For this reason, I have been hoping Bayern do NOT win the Bundesliga for a couple of seasons already and this season my wish might come true... of course this wish is entirely mine and is not to be taken as a standard wish by Bayern fans because it isn't. A league considered more interesting helps Bayern in the longer term. That and wins no longer carry the value they used to before.

I think it affects the English national team as well. As for Lahm, unfortunately he didn't play "way past his 30s"; he's only recently turned 35! That said, had he not retired so early, Kimmich's career wouldn't have really turned out the way it would.

Try to imagine how we couldn't believe our luck when Lahm retired (even earlier than was expected) and Kimmich turned out to be so wonderful a replacement. He was literally playing in the 2nd division. That's why sometimes you just need to throw a youngster in at the deep end. What works against English clubs, in my opinion, a factor that is not talked about much, is the media. The English media has the knack of hyping up a player, putting extra pressure on him, and then slam him down when he fails to meet expectations. Youngsters need time to develop and will have their ups and downs. They don't just need managers to trust in them, but they also need the media to get off their backs. Unfortunately for you, this is more of a cultural thing and not in your club's direct control, but I think it *is* a factor. It's the same thing with CHO; Sarri could get a string of bad results and be gone before the end of this season, and maybe replaced with a manager who really loves developing youngsters and start giving CHO the playing time many of you think he deserves. Thing is... would the media leave CHO in peace? Would he be allowed to do some foolery with a girl, have a top performance without being overhyped or have a really disappointing performance without being shredded to bits?

Well, if you close your eyes to this season, I would agree with you, even though the word "competitive" is misused. In purely technical terms, the Bundesliga is one of the most competitive leagues around (i.e. how close teams are to one another), but the Bundesliga winner is more predictable. The point still remains though: next preseason Bayern will have higher bookmaker odds of lifting a trophy. That's exactly how it is. You just need to inform them in writing. I understand your confusion because in intra-Premier League transfers there are other extra regulations, including that permission is needed to be granted, but that's extra over and above the FIFA regulations and would only apply if, say, Tottenham Hotspur are interested in negotiating a contract with Hudson-Odoi, not Bayern. I'm going by the newspapers, yes. The same newspapers that sniffed out the interest before Bayern made it public. I understand that a lot of what's written in newspapers is bogus, made up or just downright ridiculous, but in this case we have multiple sources all saying the same thing, and going as far as naming the shirt number #10 that he was promised. It could all be untrue, and everyone's free to believe what they want, but it's not something that *I* made up or assumed, that's what I'm trying to say. Don't be naive to assume Bayern have no say. They're the ones making the bids and they're the ones who can convince CHO to sit out the rest of his contract (which, in my opinion, satisfies neither of the three parties). Yes, Chelsea have more power on his imminent future but which club has more power on where CHO will play in season 2020/21 is not obviously clear.

No mate, it's on me, no need to apologise. I understand your frustrations, especially given that Bayern don't have a great track record at developing youngsters lately. I think the last one to break through and hold his own in the team was Alaba. And he's 26 now.

I'm sharing the knowledge I have whilst reading the knowledge you have. I'm not taking the piss, simply because I haven't yet made up my mind whether I want my club to sign CHO for so much money or not. I started out strongly against the move but after watching him play against Nottingham Forest I saw that he could be a good deal. Still there's a lot of question marks since his true potential is so hard to gauge. Sorry for giving you a wrong impression about myself.

I never said Chelsea is a small club and never even hinted at that, but the chances of winning trophies under Bayern is bigger. Under FIFA regulation 18.3, a contract CAN be negotiated as long as the club who owns the player (Chelsea) is simply informed beforehand. Emphasis on the 'negotiated'... i.e. not signed. CHO signing any kind of contract with Bayern at this point in time would be illegal. I'm not speculating by that "he's offered a more important role", but going by all news reports... the same news reports that were proven (at least partially) correct since Bayern made their interest in CHO public since. Callum is not making himself a favour if he remains at Chelsea. He's getting some hate from the fans and I'm sure his teammates don't look at him in the same way anymore in the dressing room. He's gone to lengths to make his move to Bayern possible, and it will not be comfortable for him if he ends up staying. That said, a few world class performances later and all would be good again.

Rest assured that Bayern have already negotiated a contract with CHO, in full compliance with FIFA regulation 18.3. Part of the negotiations is obviously related to assurances about playing time. It could also be negotiated to be stipulated in the eventual contract, whereby a player is paid money for not playing in a match for which he's fit and not suspended, and/or a release clause that is triggered if the player fails to play in a defined percentage of competitive matches. I get what you're saying about Callum on Instagram, but remember the kid's 18 and he's being courted by a club that's promising him a more important role in a club that has a bigger chance of lifting trophies. A chance like that doesn't come about every day.

There is no need to be insulting and obscene and I refuse to stoop down to this level. Bayern aren't what is making the Bundesliga poorer: it's the exodus to Premier League clubs. Not just players, even head coaches (managers). Heck, Liverpool even signed our club cook and our fitness coach. If anything, Bayern are contributing towards retaining quality in the league. Where were Bayern when BVB were offloading Sahin, Kagawa, Dembele, Gundogan, Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan, all key players, amongst plenty of other names? At which point would you accept that selling key players is part and parcel of all Bundesliga clubs excluding Bayern? Do you know how many times players joined Bayern simply because they outbid foreign clubs who would otherwise have taken the player?

Just because Lewandowski wanted to move to a bigger club and chose Bayern over the rest of Europe who were courting him doesn't mean you should get jealous and make unsubstantiated claims that Bayern asked the players to run their contract down. Every Borussia Dortmund fan would tell you he was gone with or without Bayern's interest. It really isn't the same thing as you guys making Ballack move to London by offering him what was at the time a record salary that Bayern could not afford to match. We offered Lewandowski and Goretzka salaries that were decent at best for their quality levels. They chose us for sporting and prestige reasons.

Well, meh. Let's see: Caballero, Green, Cahill, Ampadu, Kanté, Drinkwater, Barkley, Moses & Giroud (9 players in total) versus: Neuer, Ulreich, Süle, Hummels*, Kimmich, Goretzka, Gnabry, Lewandowski & Wagner* (9 players in total) *is a Bayern youth product who was sold and bought back.

Do I need to point out the overwhelming irony in your statement or can you do that on your own? Bayern spent €12.9m for Ballack, close to, if not breaking, the club transfer record. You have to remember that in those times, that was the cost of players. Real Madrid wanted Ballack too but he wanted to stay in Germany and chose Bayern. Now compare that to how Chelsea signed Ballack from Bayern. Or Claudio Pizarro.

Nice, we call it the Daily Fail too, but was wondering if it was more reliable towards news regarding local clubs. In fact they call it a buy-back clause but then describe a first-option.

How reliable is DailyMail for Chelsea news?

I don't know, but if you ask me he looks scarily young for his age. He IS a witch doctor.

€50m plus Hazard sounds fair?

Hey we have this great youngster in Renato Sanches, do you want him?

Ask any other Bayern fan what he thinks about the injuries and the club doctor.

I wouldn't sign for Bayern if I was CHO, due to the club doctor. One good injury and you're out indefinitely. Just to bring an example, when Neuer was last injured the first estimate was he'd be back in November 2017. Instead, his first match was during the World Cup, and he hasn't been the same goalkeeper since.

Well, take a look at the last general meeting of Bayern, if you can sift through booing and insulting/sarcastic questions to the board members, that is. The problem with our club doctor is that he never really got sacked. And Guardiola WAS right. This 76 year old witch doctor uses experimental treatment that he refuses to get peer-tested, and generally involve blood or other stuff extracted from farm animals. Plus he's a fan of homeopathy, where he wants players' bodies to heal themselves rather than use medicine and (legal) drugs like everybody else does. This is why Bayern always have so many players injured, because our injured players take much longer to heal from injuries than they would had they been treated by other doctors. As a professional footballer, one of the factors that should be taken into consideration, but (probably) rarely is, is the quality of the club doctor. I bet nobody told Hudson-Odoi this.

I appreciate your eagerness but I just think torture's a wee bit too much. If your current board members ultimately end up getting treated by our club doctor, we'd be without a board for a couple of years. Thinking about it, that'd still be an improvement. While we're at it, can we swap club doctors, or are your players not up for a regular dose of goat blood and substances extracted from a cockerel's crest?

I'd accept this too. How do you propose we arrange this?