Undoubtedly the greatest outcome of Premier League clubs plundering most of the top strikers along with Florian Wirtz from the Bundesliga this summer has been the gloriously salty reactions from the stakeholders of a club that’s now faced with the same reality that the relative minnows in their division have experienced at their hands for over four decades.
Bayern have won 34 league titles since 1980, with recent successes in particular built upon the idea that every German footballer wants to play for them and will do if the Bundesliga giant puts in a reasonable bid to sign them from the powerless clubs who have nurtured and developed their talent.
There was a notable shift in that transfer dominance this summer. Bayer Leverkusen’s Wirtz was joined by Eintracht Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike in signing for Liverpool and Benjamin Sesko left RB Leipzig for Manchester United, before Newcastle struck a last-gasp deal to sign Nick Woltemade having exhausted all other options in their bid to sign a replacement for Alexander Isak in a signing which was the final fistful of salt in the now very concentrated Bayern beer.
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They were already aghast at Wirtz snubbing them in favour of Liverpool, and the German media’s reaction to the playmaker’s recent performances for the national team suggests he now faces an uphill task to win them back over after having had the temerity to move from one club to another that isn’t the one they’re supposed to move to or – at a push – Real Madrid.
Like an exhausted parent insisting they have sympathy for their friends going out and getting drunk with no care in the world as they don’t have the that feeling of warmth and love at home that comes with being told “no” by a toddler 427 times a day as they clear their sh*t and p*ss off the living room carpet, former Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says he actually “feels sorry for Florian Wirtz”.
“I have to honestly say, I still feel sorry for Florian Wirtz because I think the player would be better off at Bayern Munich than at Liverpool,” Rummenigge told the German publication Welt. Wouldn’t worry about him, mate.
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Nor Woltemade, whom fellow bitter old man Uli Hoeness merely dismissed as “not worth €90m” when asked about his move to Newcastle over Bayern this summer.
According to Sport Bild , Hoeness ‘personally drove the pursuit of Woltemade’ and ‘spoke to the forward multiple times over the summer’, only for Stuttgart to hold out for the mammoth Newcastle bid. We can understand why he might be a bit angry.
And we’re not saying Rummenigge, as a member of Bayern’s supervisory board, shouldn’t voice similar frustration, in fact we actively encourage it, but is does feel as though he’s the resident old man shouting at clouds, an embittered pawn for journalists to poke for indignant soundbites.
“We could have signed Woltemade,” Rummenigge said. “But I also have to say that FC Bayern would be well advised not to go along with every financial madness. I’ve always said that we want sporting success, but please with serious and solid financing.”
Some more brine for that man’s beer, if you please.
