If you can’t beat ’em...: Christian Eriksen interested in transfer to Bayern Munich

Christian Eriksen was on the pitch for only three of the seven goals that Bayern Munich fired past Tottenham Hotspur in the 7-2 thrashing they gave the London club on October 1. The central midfielder was left out of the starting lineup, but played the final 26 minutes as coach Mauricio Pochettino scrambled to save a lost cause.

Not long after the brutal defeat and another dismal 0-3 loss against Brighton rumors began to fly that Eriksen was ready to move on. Now Sport1’s Florian Plettenberg reports that “Bayern is a serious option for Eriksen, and he can imagine a transfer to Munich.”

Eriksen, like Bayern’s own allegedly frustrated Thomas Müller, would prefer to transfer in the winter window in January. Eriksen has declined a contract extension with Tottenham and is already in the final year of his contract, which expires on June 30, 2020. Although Plettenberg believes a winter transfer is unlikely, January will be Tottenham’s last opportunity to extract some added value in the form of a transfer fee from whoever would pay a premium for the disgruntled Dane. He is courted not only by Bayern, but also by Real Madrid, Manchester United, and others.

Sport1 argues that Eriksen could replace Thomas Müller as a central attacking midfielder, if Müller were to depart in the summer of 2020. But such a transfer would seemingly jar with Munich’s interest in either retaining Philippe Coutinho or signing Bayer Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz for the same position. Currently 27 years old, Eriksen is roughly ten months older than Coutinho, but the temptation of a free transfer might be hard to resist.

Bayern has kept tabs on Eriksen for several months, and CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge himself revealed his awareness of Eriksen’s contract situation, commenting on Tottenham as follows:

The question is whether they can keep this top team together, because next year a contract like Eriksen’s will expire.