Niko Kovac wants Bayern Munich to sign four more players this summer

Five players have already left Bayern Munich this summer, but only three have joined: wingers Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, midfielder James Rodriguez, backup outside-back Rafinha, and center-back Mats Hummels. Bayern Munich’s only signings thus far are Lucas Hernandez from Atletico Madrid, Jann-Fiete Arp from Hamburg and Benjamin Pavard from relegated VfB Stuttgart, both of which were announced and officially confirmed well before the summer.

Since the start of the summer, Bayern has been linked with a bevvy of top talents, including Manchester City’s Leroy Sané, Chelsea’s Callum-Hudson-Odoi, Lille’s Nicolas Pepe, and Ajax’s Matthijs de Ligt, but the club has yet to finalize a transfer.

At this point, per a report by kicker (via Bild), Bayern’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic and head coach Niko Kovac are facing pressure to secure additional signings for the summer transfer window. Ideally, securing new signings sooner rather than later would be better, giving the players a full pre-season with Bayern, but time is of the essence. Specifically, Kovac feels that Bayern still need to bring in four players because “17 professionals” in the squad is not enough:

We still need four players. We won’t get far with 17 pros. We need 19.

In addition to the players who have already left the club, it’s likely that both Jerome Boateng and Renato Sanches may also leave before the transfer window closes. And even after Pavard and Hernandez arrive, there are still holes that Bayern needs to fill. Most recently, SportBild reported that Bayern’s hierarchy is now interested in pursuing Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembélé as a so-called “plan B” for Sané.

Bayern is also now even interested in signing PSV Eindhoven left winger Steven Bergwijn. This is the first time Bayern has been linked with the Dutch winger, and he’s considered to be a like-for-like replacement for either Ribery, his primary position being on the left flank. The 21-year-old is coming off of a fantastic campaign for PSV, scoring 15 goals and providing 13 assists from a total of 41 appearances across competitions.

Some highlights of Bergwijn: