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It’s no secret that Bayern Munich club president Uli Hoeness is not a fan of big-money transfers, which are becoming more and more common in each passing transfer window. In recent weeks, striker Robert Lewandowski has been linked with just such a move out of Munich to the English Premier League, but Hoeness is having absolutely none of it.
Regarding the possibility of a major signing, Hoeness conceded the following:
That can definitely happen someday, but not this year.
As for recent questions about whether Hoeness and Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge hold contradictory views about Bayern Munich’s transfer policy—Rummenigge speculated that Bayern could invest a significant amount of money in summer signings—Hoeness sees no conflict:
What Karl-Heinz and what I said do not cancel each other out.
That would tend to confirm the opinion, recently expressed by BFW’s own Gopika, that Bayern Munich’s bosses are more closely aligned on transfers than it seems.
Hoeness remains the more reluctant of the two to go after signings upwards of €80m-€90m. The rumors circulating about Lewandowski’s potential departure weren’t taken too kindly by Hoeness, who made sure to remind everyone that players sign contracts that are meant to be honored, not broken. Referring to the potential for conflict between Bayern Munich and players determined to leave, Hoeness declared,
We will show the soccer world that the club is still stronger.
Looking forward to the summer transfer window and next season for Bayern, Hoeness admitted that the prospect of having Serge Gnabry join the ranks is quite exciting after how good he was for Hoffenheim during the second half of the season:
[Gnabry] was one of the best strikers of the Rückrunde.
Hoeness also compared having Kingsley Coman back after his protracted injury will be like a new signing. Counting Gnabry, Goretzka, and Coman together, Hoeness said:
We have three good new young people right there. We have massive potential.
It’s still just over a month until the summer transfer window officially opens, and a lot can happen in that span of time. With Rafinha, Sven Ulreich,Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery having already signed contract extensions, it remains to be seen how many more additions the club will be interested in making.