Round-Up: Five things I do(n’t) like

The international break – that means a lot of idling and little news from Säbener Straße. In today’s round-up I’m writing about five current stories that I like or don’t like.

Maurice

March 25, 2019

1. The situation around Sanches

It was perhaps the Bayern story of the (last) week: Renato Sanches complained in an interview with kicker about his current role as a reserve in the Munich squad and floats the idea of a change in the coming transfer period.

In fact, the season has not been an easy one for the Portuguese player. At the beginning of the season, when Kovač was still rotating, the Croatian put him in the starting eleven again and again. However, when the Bavarians slipped into a crisis in early autumn, Sanches got fewer and fewer appearances.

The 21-year-old has played more than 40 minutes in just two games since October. Since December, he hasn’t played for more than half an hour in a match. So it is understandable why Sanches is complaining.

The young midfielder is suffering under the classic chicken-and-egg problem that all youth players encounter: Without good performances he can’t get any matches, but he can’t put in any good performances without matches.

Sanches has rarely had the chance to really prove his qualities. In the match against Leipzig he came in and paved the way for Ribéry’s 1-0 winner. In the second leg against Liverpool he showed a more than decent performance.

Nevertheless, by the summer at the latest, all parties must sit down together and discuss the future. Continuing to stubbornly pursue the current course of action without the prospect of more game time would be detrimental to both Sanches and FC Bayern. If Kovač is not planning long-term with the Portuguese or a similar type of player, it would probably be best to draw a line in the summer.

2. Hoeneß as a family anchor

In the current edition of Socrates magazine, the speedy Bayern wing Kingsley Coman spoke candidly. The young Frenchman opened up about his difficult beginning in Munich and how Uli Hoeneß helped him during this phase.

The FC Bayern family – Hoeneß is famous for painting this picture and has significantly influenced the external image of the club. With all the justified criticism of him, one must always keep this in mind. The human and personal component of the president is an essential and unique asset of the club.

He is the man primarily responsible for the family atmosphere among the Munich team. An important aspect that distinguishes FC Bayern from other clubs internationally. This has proven to be an important aspect that has tied players like Lahm and Ribéry to the club in the past.

Personally, I will never forget my first meeting with the former manager. As a little boy I walked up the red spiral staircase in the main wing of Säbener Straße with my parents – past filled trophy cases and photos from glorious times. A friendly employee had previously pressed a stack of autograph cards into my hand. My pride and joy. But unfortunately my favourite player was missing: Giovane Élber.

Quite unexpectedly Hoeneß met us on the spiral staircase. At first my parents and I were speechless. With a simple “Hello! Can I help you?” he released us from our perplexity. My father explained to him the situation with the autograph cards and indeed – the great Uli Hoeneß disappeared behind a big door, only to reappear a short time later with two signed autograph cards from Elber. Of course it was a little thing for him, but for me it meant the world.

Over the next few years, Rummenigge and Hoeneß will pass the torch of FC Bayern on to a new generation. In addition to the sporting and economic components, however, it will also be extremely important for the club to attract a man to Säbener Straße who brings the humanity and familiarity that Hoeneß has.

3. Transfer saga in the summer

At a trade fair in Munich, president Hoeneß repeated his remarks from the Dopplepass in February and once again underlined that FC Bayern would invest a lot in the squad this summer.

With these statements, the former manager wants to underline the international position of the Munich team. They are also to be understood as a kind of attacking signal for the competition. After the year of change under Kovač the big move is to succeed with a strengthened and rejuvenated squad – or at least the next step in this direction is to be made.

However, I find the sense of this new openness with regard to transfer costs hard to understand. If you are still planning transfers at the moment, the international competition will generously ask the Bayern management to pay more in potential transfers. Even if you already have all of your intended transfers fixed, this is at the very least bad taste.

**President Uli Hoeneß shows two sides: The family anchor and the pompous manager.**
Image: Alexandra Beier/Getty Images

The signing of James plus the already agreed transfer of Pavard amounts to a total of 77 million euros alone. Additionally, the transfer of the Frenchman Lucas Hernández, which various media companies have already announced as a done deal, would double that sum again. Finally, Bayern could still be in the market for another winger and a backup at fullback.

Regardless of who actually moves to the Isar this summer, three things seem certain: The current transfer record for a single player (Tolisso, 2017/18, 41.5M€) will fall, the current transfer record for a single transfer period (2017/18, 116M€) will fall, and the deposits account of the Munich team will be much lighter.

4. Dream pass by Lewandowski

On the birthday of Ronaldinho, Robert Lewandowski once again showed that he can do more than score goals. With this dreamlike No-Look-Pass after an elegant first touch with his heel, the Polish national team player enchanted not only his Austrian opponents, but also all of Twitter.

5. Racism in Wolfsburg

“Attention no basketball” is the title of a video by André Voigt, the best-known German basketball journalist and self-confessed VfL Wolfsburg fan, which made the rounds after the international match of the German national team against Serbia.

In just under five minutes, the DAZN commentator emotionally describes his experiences from the stadium, which touch you emotionally as you listen. Right-wing slogans, racist insults and hardly any dissenting voices. What Voigt experiences this evening is sad and disturbing at the same time.

All of us at Miasanrot would like to thank André for his courage to stand up for his values such as openness, diversity and integration, values which are also shared here in the blog and which the German national team also stands for. Rightwing, exclusionary thoughts have no place in our society or in our stadiums.

Leon Goretzka’s reaction shows that this topic has also made waves among players. The midfielder was one of the first to position himself very clearly on Instagram. It is encouraging that the players are not completely decoupled from the themes of society.

We also wish André a lot of courage and strength to get him through this difficult phase which has included hostilities against him and his family.

#Togetheragainstracism