Last Week in Bayern News
July 6, 2020 Sunday
The week kicked off with former Bayern and German National Team striker Mario Gomez announcing his retirement. Gomez of course played for many clubs after his departure from Munich but it is sad to see him depart after playing in the second division over the last year.
Alphonso Davies, Serge Gnabry, Thomas Müller, Joshua Kimmich and Robert Lewandowski were all in WhoScored’s Bundesliga Team of the Week. Additionally, Lewandowski ran away with their Bundesliga Player of the Season award with Davies finishing in 4th.
Manuel Neuer meanwhile developed a new training regimen that utilizes the equipment that he has available to him…every year. Very resourceful Manu.
Monday
Excellent news transfer-halics, the 2020 German summer transfer window will be open from July 15th – October 5th. Importantly, there is also a one day period on July 1st to register players whose contracts are already concluded.
According to Sky, Micheal Cuisance could in fact leave on a loan deal this summer with Olympique Marseille thought to be a good fit. However, the Bayern brass will wait to make a decision until the status of the rest of the midfield is determined.
Then started the news of ManCity trying to engage in a swap deal for Sane. First it was David Alaba, which Falk was quick to shut down, then it was Kingsley Coman…according to FussballTransfers. Honestly, it just started to feel like either City or the internet people of City, were hoping to get anything in return for Sane.
Alaba however has still not been locked up by the Bavarian club and while he is open to staying in Munich, if he were to leave, it appears he would be heading to Spain over England according to the Telegraph.
Tuesday
Remember that July 1st clause? It’s about to get important. Bayern wasted no time in making progress on a few of their first transfers having both Alexander Nübel and Tanguy Kouassi complete their medical checks in Munich. However the real news was to follow later in the day when Bild broke the story of the long anticipated transfer of Sane to Bayern was finally about to happen.
This was such a momentous story that little else seemed to be discussed the rest of the day. Sure Thiago and Tolisso both were in team training and Javi looked set to miss out on the Pokal final, but Sane was the only thing anyone cared about. He’s not even here yet and he’s already stealing the limelight.
I guess there was some excitement, if you’re either a doctor or have an odd facination in the back room medical staff at Bayern, with the announcment that Dr. Peter Ueblacker and Dr. Jochen Hahne would replace Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt as the heads of the medical department.
Wednesday
For the first official move of the transfer period Tanguy Kouassi signed his contract with the club. He immediately decided to confuse everyone and change the name on his shirt to Nianzou. New club. New name. Makes sense to me.
While the rest of us were waiting for more signings, Uli Hoeness went on record at Sport 1 saying that he was excited about Sane signing and that he thinks Havertz is an excellent player especially at so young an age. Real insightful stuff.
Meanwhile, Sane was seen in a car and Bayern II drew with Duisburg to remain top of the third division.
Rummenigge told Bild that Bayern were interested in Jürgen Klopp in the past but pointed out that he was under contract every time they were searching for a new manager. Funny how that didn’t seem to be a factor when they poached Niko Kovac.
If you’re interested in Bayern’s sponsors, and maybe you should be given that a large portion of their transfer budget comes from them, the club extended their partnership with Siemens till the end of the 2022/23 season.
Weirdly, Bild also subtly announced that the departure of Thiago was almost certain and that as a result one of Tolisso or Martinez could stay.
Thursday
Thursday was an odd day where everyone was waiting for an official announcement of Leroy Sane…that would not come. However there was plenty of news about him signing a contract until 2025, getting his medical check, eating Italian food, taking pictures at the training ground and finally even photo’s that were accidentally leaked showing the club signing the player which Bayern then had to apologize for.
Kicker released their Bundesliga Team of the Season…which was naturally Bayern heavy. Neuer, Davies, Pavard, Kimmich, Müller and Lewandowski all were included.
Late in the day, Diario Sport broke the hearts of many Bayern fans by reporting that Thiago appeared to be very close to joining Liverpool next season. Supposed the player and the club had come to an agreement, though things still needed to be worked out between LFC and Bayern.
Friday
After all the blundering, speculation and “official” reports, FC Bayern finally actually made the signing of Leroy Sane official official. And all Bayern fans breathed a collective sigh of relief.
The majority of the rest of the day was spent talking about Sane joining the club, unless your name is Manuel Neuer or Hansi Flick who was determined to put a damper on all of our celebrations saying “We are happy that Leroy joined us but now is not the time to talk about that.” Scrooges.
However, while he was busy stomping on dreams, he did announce that Hermann Gerland would stay on for another year as his assistant.
Rummenigge then confirmed that Thiago did desire to leave Bayern following the season and made it clear that the club would look to sell him so as not to lose him for free the following season.
He then dashed any hopes that Bayern fans may have of Havertz coming in as a bit of a replacement for the Spaniard saying that the transfer would not be financially possible for the club this year.
Meanwhile he also put a dent in anyone’s hopes of Perisic remaining at the club and used a phrase that I think will start to wear thin on the minds of Bayern supporters everywhere when asked about the status: “…FC Bayern also faces major economic challenges.” We know Karl…we know.
Saturday
Match day started off…with you guessed it, more transfer speculation. According to AZ, Bayern are still interested in strengthening three positions, Right back (Dest being the leading candidate), central midfield and the wing (assuming Perisic does not transfer).
A little later, despite the fact that they lost their final match to Kaiserslautern 1-0, Bayern II clinched the 3. Liga title thanks to Eintracht Braunschweig losing to SV Meppen 4-3. Truly an incredible achievement for the youth side, especially given that they were just promoted this season.
Back to the first team, Leroy Sane gave his new club an “Auf geht’s!” from vacation land. And whether that encouragement had anything to do with it, Bayern came out of the gates hot and held on to beat Leverkusen 4-2. In the match, Lewandowski scored his 50 and 51st goals of the season. Manuel Neuer picked up his first assist as a Bayern player. Bayern also set a new German record by winning 17 consecutive games in all competitions.
The rest of the night was about celebrating and deservedly so. The club will have over a month to get ready for the Champions League, so party hard boys! You deserve it.
Brilliant sum up and not without a touch of humor, nice job thank you Marc. It was a great week to be a Bayern fan, 2 titles and 2 signings confirmed. I don’t understand the 1st July point thought, would that mean Nubel and Kouassi are eligible for Bayern from now?
Thanks! I’m not sure there was a significant point to the July 1st signing period apart from clubs being able to show off their new shiny players that they already had agreements with. Nubel, Kouassi and Sane are not eligible to play for Bayern till the new season but I think they can all now train with the club.
Thiago leaving really breaks my heart. While there is lots of talk of the Goretzka and Kimmich, I don’t rate either near Thiago. So it goes.
I’ll be sad to see him go as well. I think Kimmich is an excellent player in his own right so I’m not sure I completely agree with you, but they are different players and Thiago’s ability on the ball and positioning will not be replaced easily by next season. I will choose, out of necessity, to look on the positive side of things though. Given the improvement of both players this season and their obvious desire and work ethic, Thiago’s departure probably will have a very positive affect on the growth of both Kimmich and Goretzka. Thiago is also not the youngest player any more and probably only has 3-4 years, at best, left of his prime. We also can’t ignore that there will be a few more younger midfielders coming in that will need some game time. So while I don’t like the fact that Thiago is leaving, I am hopeful that there is a silver lining.