Uli Hoeness says Bayern won’t spend more than €80m on any player this summer

It took all 34 match-weeks in the Bundesliga, but Bayern Munich have clinched their 7th consecutive Bundesliga title. With new additions to the squad next season, Bayern will boost their prospects of defending that title for the eighth season in a row, but Uli Hoeness doesn’t want the club to break the bank any more than they already have.

Speaking to reporters after Bayern’s victory over Eintracht Frankfrt (Bild), Hoeness said that the club will not spend more than €80m on any one player during the remainder of the summer transfer window:

We’re not playing Monopoly here. We’re a soccer club. We have reached a limit with €80 million, and I don’t think that we’ll exceed it in further transfers.

Bayern have already signed Benjamin Pavard from VfB Stuttgart for €35m and Lucas Hernandez from Atletico Madrid for €80m. Both Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge have already promised a big summer in the transfer window upwards of €200m, but having already spent €115m, that doesn’t leave much of a budget left unless some players are sold.

Bayern have been linked with a handful of players whom they might potentially sign. Most recently, those names include Matthijs de Ligt, Leroy Sané, Timo Werner, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and even Antoine Griezmann, all of whom would have considerable price tags slapped on them by their respective clubs. €80m might cover one or two of those players, if Bayern were to sign them.

Hoeness has always been vociferous in his opinion that players are overvalued in today’s inflated transfer market, but he also admitted that he understands times are changing:

We said that the transition would plunge ahead. We have gotten two or three players and will definitely not stop at that. Once the Pokal match is over, Hasan will be active again. At the moment, he’s been laying low, because whenever he pops up somewhere, the story is that he’s interested in this guy or that guy. After the game against Leipzig, things will pick up. If we can finish this year of transition with the championship, then we can’t be worried about the future of FC Bayern.

Hoeness was also asked about the future of Niko Kovac, but he refused to indulge reporters with a response on the topic just after the Croatian had helped Bayern clinch their 7th consecutive Meisterschale:

I have always said I won’t take part in this discussion. I won’t do that today either. You won’t hear anything about that topic from me, because I’m of the opinion that now is not the right moment for that.