After 17 match days, the championship race in the Bundesliga has already been decided again. At the end of the season, FC Bayern will win their tenth title in a row. The Champions League season doesn’t start until April. But before sports director Hasan Salihamidzic a huge task is building up.
FC Bayern Munich are German champions. For the tenth time in a row. Only the greatest pessimists or optimists doubt this, depending on which side of history they have been on in recent years. With a nine point lead over the not exactly competitive Dortmunders, the team around Julian Nagelsmann, who has so far been untitled in his career, is only concerned with securing the championship mathematically as soon as possible. Maybe even in front of fans. That would be something. Maybe even a reason for an exuberant celebration at Marienplatz.
With the title secured, the cup lost and the Champions League still a long way off, Bayern will be about to set the course for the next few years of national dominance in the coming months. Again there is a risk of free transfer departures, again there is unrest around Robert Lewandowski and again you have to extend a few other contracts before they expire in the following year.
Corona has not left its mark on the Bundesliga giant either. In the 2020/2021 ghost season, Bayern again recorded a drop in sales to “only” 643.9 million euros, around 100 million euros below the record sales of the last pre-pandemic season 2018/2019. Although the Munich-based company was still able to post a profit of 1.9 million euros after taxes, the numbers are declining here too.
When the richest club in the world calls
The pandemic will tear further holes in the planning. The current season is also little more than a disguised ghost year. A season without spectators, said CFO Jan-Christian Dreesen at the annual general meeting in November, means “in addition to the emotional hole also a very painful loss of sales”. Which are not yet reflected in the continued rise in salaries at Bayern München AG. These salaries are now again the subject of critical examination. Ultimately, they are part of the deliberations of the new Bayern management around managing director Oliver Kahn and sports director Hasan Salihamidzic.
Again there is a risk of two stars leaving without a transfer fee, one of which Bayern has already written off. World champion Corentin Tolisso no longer has a future on Säbener Straße. One would love to give it away even in winter to get back at least a fraction of the 41.5 million euros invested in 2017. But the case with national player Niklas Süle is different, who after Jérôme Boateng and David Alaba in the summer of 2021 could be the third painful departure in the defense center.
The richest club in the world, Newcastle United, is said to be interested in him, as are a few other Premier League clubs, and Bayern are unwilling to reward Süle nearly as well. He was able to break free from a longer low this season and is playing a bigger role on the pitch again. Then, according to “Sky”, the finish is almost certain that someone else will have to fill it in. Bavaria can plan, the rest can speculate. Splendid. Let’s start.
The battle of the states
If Süle leaves, Benjamin Pavard, who looks rather unhappy with the right-back position, could move to the headquarters and open a construction site on the outside. The name Sergino Dest appears again and again in the relevant papers. The American from the Ajax Amsterdam School has not yet provided evidence of his international class at FC Barcelona and is likely to be just one of many candidates.
Despite the failures of Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka, the Reds rushed through the league in recent weeks. They couldn’t be stopped, even when Marc Roca suddenly appeared at the headquarters, who has not yet played a major role in the Bundesliga. But of course it is the case that Bayern have long ceased to compete with VfB Stuttgart, VfL Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund. They also don’t have to compete with the opponents in their Champions League groups. The Bayern squad must be aligned for the knockout games in the premier class.
Then the squad has to work, then it has to be there. Failures there weigh heavily. As the numerous defeats, mostly without Lewandowski, prove in this phase, as also proves the win of the final tournament in Lisbon, as Hansi Flick was able to work his miracles and formed the team of the hour from a good team. For a long time now, Bayern is no longer about sending the best squad onto the pitch on the Bundesliga route, but rather in the one – which the people in charge on Säbener Strasse like to bring close to a “battle of states” – Champions League to minimize the chance of injuries, the form crisis at the stupidest time and to pull luck on the side of Bayern.
Was will Coman?
Luck may not be so easy to conjure up in games against Liverpool or Manchester City with a midfield from Roca and the Austrian Marcel Sabitzer. A construction site for Bavaria, where Salihamidzic has to work, especially when Tolisso, another player in the squad, leaves the club. Then there is the grand piano. As is well known, Kingsley Coman has been in the contract renewal clinic with the club for a long time. The Frenchman is a kind of good luck charm for all the clubs he has played for so far. This is of course due to the clubs, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Bayern, who dominated their leagues at will, but the 25-year-old wants to have that gilded after everything that can be heard.
The contract will run until 2023, but that also means: Extending the contract until the summer or handing over Coman for a lot of money, because a free transfer in 2023 would be difficult to negotiate. Negotiations between Bayern and the French are supposed to be running again.
It’s about determining the player’s worth. The value for the club without annoying the cabin in the long term. Is he allowed to join the salary regions of a Thomas Müller, a Manuel Neuer and what does that do with Serge Gnabry, who is also tied to Bayern until 2023? As always, it’s about a lot of money, but also about what perspective Bayern can show their players. The players, said Bayern boss Oliver Kahn at his presentation in the middle of the year, have the chance to “help shape an era”. But does Coman even want that? Or would he rather earn more money?
The Lewandowski dilemma
A special case is still top earner Lewandowski. His contract also expires in 2023. Not only is he the highest-paid player, he’s also the best striker in modern league history. His move from Dortmund to Bayern in 2014 cemented the situation in the Bundesliga, his contribution to the incredible consistency of the series champions could not be higher.
But the Pole will be 34 years old this summer, a new contract has to be found or a decision has to be made about how the club wants to position itself in the coming years. Do the Bavarians want to keep the top earner, take a lot of money in hand and then say goodbye to the end of his career with the big cutlery or maybe take a look at heir to the throne Erling Haaland? How tempting that is.
Hundreds of articles have been written about Lewandowski. It’s also about: Does Lewandowski want to refine his career as the best Bundesliga scorer or win the Ballon d’Or again in a distant country and finally be loved internationally? It continues there in spring. As with Coman. There is enough time. The league is won, the Champions League is the goal. With the neighbor from Salzburg, who were at eye level in the group with Wolfsburg, the knockout phase does not start until the beginning of April. Now sports director Salihamidzic has to deliver. He still has to fight for recognition. Despite the coup with Kimmich, despite the extension with Goretzka. Now he gets the chance. It’s possibly the most complicated game of the season.
Stephan Uersfeld
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