It’s been the saga of the summer thus far for Bayern Munich. Will Leroy Sane decide to leave Manchester City for Bayern if the price is right for all parties? As is always the case with transfer windows, the narrative has taken its fair share of twists and turns, but Pep Guardiola has given a potentially telling update on the status of the German winger.
Per a report by Manchester Evening News, Guardiola has made it clear that City only want “happy players” at the club. He also referenced the fact that City tried to negotiate a new deal for the midfielder since his current contract with the club is set to expire in June of 2021:
Yeah. The club make him an offer last year so I said many times. We want people here to be happy. We are going to help him to be the best, we know his potential and what his level is. He has a special quality difficult to find around the world.
With such a star-studded squad, Sane experienced decreased minutes at City last season and was clearly unhappy with it. This was just on the back of being left out of the Germany squad for last summer’s World Cup in Russia, which was a controversial decision made by Joachim Low. Guardiola is well aware of how deep is squad is, which is always going to result in some players being unhappy with their playing time (like Sane). He’s stressed that he wants everyone at the club to be happy, though:
He knows, they all know, it’s difficult because of the quality we have. But, at the same time I spoke to the club 10 times I want people here to be happy, if they don’t, they go. The desire to have him to be with us is always there.
BFW Analysis
This was pretty much a very diplomatic way for Guardiola to say “I can’t help it if players are unhappy, but we’d like to keep a hold of Sane.” It’s clear that Sane has sloped down the pecking order at City and Guardiola has also had issues with his attitude at times. It’s easy to take things at a surface level when different stories come out, but it’s always worthwhile to remember that professional managers want to be as calm and collected as they can when speaking to the press.
The fact of the matter is, Sane has fallen out of favor, is playing significantly less than he would like, and will really have to work hard to climb back up the pecking order. At Bayern, he would more than likely be guaranteed more minutes and a strong possibility of a starting role given that the only natural wingers are Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman. Again, what Guardiola said could bare zero significance for Sane and could’ve just been diplomatic lip service, but it’s difficult to say that Sane is “happy” with his current situation at City. They also might be running the risk of his transfer value going down if he continues to experience decreased minutes this season.
There’s also this, which many people thought was about a pending transfer, but it was really a “personal matter” (at least per the Manchester Evening News *shrugs*):
Manchester City uploaded a clip to Twitter featuring a brief exchange between Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling:
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) July 17, 2019
LS: "Right now I don't know anything...”
RS: "Germany.”
LS: "I'll tell you after."
[via @sportbible] #MCFCpic.twitter.com/8CMdUlOAwr